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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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iOS developer David Smith has been posting iOS version stats for his Universal app Audiobooks [Direct Link]. Smith gets about 100,000 weekly downloads to both his paid and free versions and believes it is a statistically meaningful data set.

With the launch of iOS 5.1 on March 7th, 2012, Smith has been tracking the adoption rate which he suspected would be faster than in the past due to the availability of over the air (OTA) iOS updates. Indeed, after only 5 days after its initial release, Smith found that 50% of his OTA-eligible customers were already at iOS 5.1. Now, after 15 days, he's found that 77% of OTA-eligible iOS customers have upgraded to the latest version.

When he backs out to include all versions of iOS, including versions such as iOS 3 and iOS 4 which don't offer OTA updates, he finds total adoption at 61% in 15 days.




This seems to represent a significant boost in adoption for OTA-eligible upgraders.

While we don't have directly comparable numbers, it took iOS 4.0 one month to hit 50% usage by web traffic. Unfortunately, the numbers aren't entirely interchangeable, as there they are from different data sets (app usage vs web usage), but gives you an idea of the scale. If anything, factors should have contributed to a faster uptake for iOS 4 than would have been expected as it was a major new feature release (vs 5.1) at the time and was included in the successful iPhone 4 launch.

As Smith points out, this is the same level of adoption Android currently sees for Gingerbread (v2.3) which was launched much earlier (mid/late 2011). Meanwhile, the latest version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwidth/v4.0) is only at ~1.6% adoption after about 5 months.

Apple introduced "over-the-air" iOS updates as of iOS 5.0 -- allowing users to upgrade without connecting their device to a computer. They've since deployed two different upgrades (5.01 and 5.1) to users.

Article Link: Developer Sees Quick Adoption of iOS 5.1 Amongst Users
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
so many people i know are still on iOS 4.1 or something with a billion app updates waiting to be installed. it always baffles my mind why it doesnt bother them ^^
 

charlieegan3

macrumors 68020
Feb 16, 2012
2,394
17
U.K
so many people i know are still on iOS 4.1 or something with a billion app updates waiting to be installed. it always baffles my mind why it doesnt bother them ^^

I know some people do seem to be lazy when it comes to updating, but don't forget some devices (old devices) can't update past a certain version.
 

SwiftLives

macrumors 65816
Dec 7, 2001
1,356
341
Charleston, SC
is this over-the-air updates that have made the difference? What do people think?

Unlike some competitor's phone OS offerings, it probably helps that iOS updates are, at the very least, available.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich is on how many phones? 2%?

Sorry. I really needed an Apple Smugness Moment™
 

charlieegan3

macrumors 68020
Feb 16, 2012
2,394
17
U.K
I bet this developer wishes as many people used is app as used the web on their iOS devices! shame the stats aren't comparable with web usage stats...
 

Lordskelic

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2010
115
0
Texas
This is definitely because of OTA updates. When it was only through iTunes, half the time people weren't even aware there was an update.
 

jclardy

macrumors 601
Oct 6, 2008
4,138
4,318
My guess is two things. Well actually 3.

1. Most importantly - Upgrading takes less than 30 minutes and doesn't require a computer or backing up or anything like that.

2. The new camera launch functionality, people without the update see others use it and ask. Then they find out about the update and it perpetuates.

3. AT&T users want the "4G" icon :D
 

charlieegan3

macrumors 68020
Feb 16, 2012
2,394
17
U.K
Unlike some competitor's phone OS offerings, it probably helps that iOS updates are, at the very least, available.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich is on how many phones? 2%?

Sorry. I really needed an Apple Smugness Moment™

the way android approaches updates appears to be very disorganised and unclear.
 

Tee1970

macrumors member
Jan 31, 2010
48
3
Parents updating without prodding :)

I was happy to find that my mom had updated her iPhone automatically. The last few times I saw her, I was checking to see if her phone needed any updates for apps on our shared Apple Id for apps that I purchased and she was up to date and had installed the latest iOS patch! WTG for making this so easy that new users and folks not as technically savvy are able to maintain their own personal devices!
 

1=1?

macrumors regular
Jun 1, 2010
212
79
Yeah it helped that they forced me to install it. I was not allowed to restore my 5.0.1. Lost my jailbreak, and a bunch of data.
 

charlieegan3

macrumors 68020
Feb 16, 2012
2,394
17
U.K
between the 17th and 18th in the 5.1 percentage decreases I guess because of some new iOS 4 users. If something like this can show you wonder how big the sample group was? how many users does this app actually have?

web traffic is surely a much better way to do this kind of analysis?
 

jamesr19

macrumors 6502
Nov 7, 2009
251
0
is this over-the-air updates that have made the difference? What do people think?

I don't think it's just OTA (don't get me wrong - it's really helped), 5.1 brought users the ability to delete from photstream and I think that is certainly one of its benefits. As well as that, the new camera swipe on lock screen has been very popular
 

PracticalMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,857
5,242
Houston, TX
so many people i know are still on iOS 4.1 or something with a billion app updates waiting to be installed. it always baffles my mind why it doesnt bother them ^^

Do they remember their PW?


Still, this boggles my mind about the vast majority of Android users are 2 versions back (probably due to Fire):
chart
 

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,362
5,795
Do they remember their PW?


Still, this boggles my mind about the vast majority of Android users are 2 versions back (probably due to Fire):
Image


I don't think it's due to Fire. This is based on Google Market (Play) accesses. I thought the Fire didn't access that market.

arn
 

The Economist

Suspended
Apr 4, 2011
293
40
Mexico
I know a bunch of people that don't update because:

a) They don't know there's a new version of iOS.

b) Updating will mess with their icons arrangement, or so they say.
 

discuit

macrumors regular
Jan 23, 2009
126
100
5.1 OTA update messed up my friend's iphone 4. It errored midway through and the phone was stuck in recovery mode even after repeatedly attempting clean restore with itunes. I had to use jailbreak tools to "fix recovery" and kick it out of recovery mode. (This phone has never been jailbroken)
 

unlinked

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2010
698
1,217
Ireland
Do they remember their PW?


Still, this boggles my mind about the vast majority of Android users are 2 versions back (probably due to Fire):

The Fire isn't included in those stats because it doesn't have access to Google Play. Most devices are 1 version behind because 3.X was never released for phones.
 
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