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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple recently updated its "Optimizing Apps for iOS 6"developer page with a new pie chart highlighting the lack of fragmentation among iOS versions being run on active mobile devices (via AppleInsider). According to the chart, 93% of iOS devices accessing the App Store over a two-week period ending on June 3 were running some version of iOS 6, with 6% running iOS 5 and just 1% running earlier versions of the operating system software.

ios_fragmentation_jun13.jpg
Apple's chart appears to be a direct jab at Google, which has long published its own pie chart that currently shows just 33% of devices visiting the Google Play store over the same time period running the company's latest Android 4.1-4.2 Jelly Bean versions, which began appearing last July. In fact, the most popular version of Android remains 2.3.x Gingerbread, which first appeared in December 2010.

android_fragmentation_jun13.jpg
Apple executives have increasingly focused on Android's fragmentation as a major weakness of the platform, with developers having to target many different versions of Android and numerous different devices with their apps. Apple contrasts that experience with developing for iOS, which supports a limited number of display sizes and for which the vast majority of users are running the most recent major version.

Article Link: Apple Highlights Low Fragmentation Among iOS Devices in Direct Jab at Android
 

dennno

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2011
120
0
It's going to be more fragmented now once iOS7 is released. I have a feeling adoption rates will not be as high as previous iOS, people are afraid of change.
 

mattbaar26

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2013
211
3
Yeah but all of iOS's new features aren't available on all devices. iOS will have even more features that won't be available on older devices.
 

DavidLeblond

macrumors 68020
Jan 6, 2004
2,322
599
Raleigh, NC
I think that there may be a slight decrease in adoption rate for iOS 7, but not much. The adoption rate should be pretty good from 6 to 7 with OTA software updates. The major stumbling block before was those people who never hooked their phones to their computers.
 

pirg

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2013
618
0
I can't get over the fact that one third of android users are still on gb. That has to suck for them.
 

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
4,271
3,753
It's going to be more fragmented now once iOS7 is released. I have a feeling adoption rates will not be as high as previous iOS, people are afraid of change.

I think this is going to be the fastest adoption rate on record.
 

err404

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2007
2,525
623
Yeah but all of iOS's new features aren't available on all devices. iOS will have even more features that won't be available on older devices.

So what? This article isn't about hardware or features. This is about developers being able to count on API consistency.
 

jrswizzle

macrumors 603
Aug 23, 2012
6,107
129
McKinney, TX
Yeah but all of iOS's new features aren't available on all devices. iOS will have even more features that won't be available on older devices.

This doesn't even make sense as a knock against Apple.....

How many 1 year old devices have or will get the latest version of Android (minus rooting and ROMs)?

There are plenty of Android devices that get left out in the cold - heck most only receive a year's worth of software updates before being thrown out for the latest flagship. Apple might hold back a feature or two, but at least they support devices for 3 years.....(iPhone 4 may not get all the features, but it will still get iOS 7). Plus - if an Android device doesn't get the software update, it won't have ANY new features.....

Apple has the best "official" software support out there. Android can make up the difference with "unofficial" support (meaning ports and roms and such).

The difference is, a vast majority of iOS users can simply accept the OTA update when it comes out - a much smaller portion of Android users roots and roms their device for the latest Android version.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
In before someone with an iPhone 3GS starts belly aching about how they can't get iOS 7...

Heck, I'm pleased they've dropped the 3GS. But never mind that: I've got a 4 and that's been a complete dog on iOS since iOS 5.

Last week, I decided to install the beta of iOS 7 on my device; and whilst I absolutely love iOS 7, I think I'd get better performance from my phone if I replaced the A4 with a CPU soldered in my garage with spare silicon.

Single-core just didn't stack up in 2011, let alone 2013. I sorta wish they dropped the iPhone 4 from being iOS 7 compatible, because people who buy an iPhone 4 will be sorely disappointed.

Great OS, crappy hardware. Dual-core all the way!
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
It's going to be more fragmented now once iOS7 is released. I have a feeling adoption rates will not be as high as previous iOS, people are afraid of change.

They were not afraid of change when iOS 6 was released. Why would they be afraid now? I think you are just making it up as you go, in order to be able to say something negative about Apple.
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,544
6,042
As someone who has developed for Android and iOS, I can tell you first hand, the fragmentation effing sucks. Google does pretty well at helping you manage it, but it still takes at least twice as long to write and test code to run on all Android devices as it does to do so with iOS devices.

And with the much smaller payoff... why bother? You're spending a lot of effort to get your app in a market that's only willing to spend 10% of what iOS users are.
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
Yeah but all of iOS's new features aren't available on all devices. iOS will have even more features that won't be available on older devices.

So what? This article isn't about hardware or features. This is about developers being able to count on API consistency.

That's exactly it. We're launching an app that's 6.1 only, but it provides the same experience across any device because it wasn't about unique hardware features, but API enhancements like CollectionView and the Social framework, not to mention things like smart banners to drive installs (and route web based traffic into the app).

:cool:
 

parapup

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2006
1,291
49
If you look at feature set of the OSes - Android 2.3 had all of the features of iOS7 :p So big deal Apple - same OS from 2007-2013 and ONE relatively significant iOS7 update that even tries to match Android 2.3!

Besides, Android people don't need to wait for an OS update to update most of their OS - it's called modularization peeps! (Chrome, Google Services(GMail, Play Store, various frameworks), Launchers, Keyboards - everything updates outside of the OS. So yeah, big deal with the numbers Apple - they don't mean as much as you make it sound they do.
 
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