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Adpotion rate of iOS 6 versus android 4.0

T

tl01

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2010
2,350
649
http://m.cnet.com/news/android-40-now-on-a-quarter-of-all-android-devices/57544368

How long has 4.0 been out? Seems like at least a year and they are already at a 25% adoption rate (yawn);). iOS 6 was at 15% in a day and at 60% or more now. Crazy! 4.0 might be great but if you can't put it on your device than it isn't very useful.
 
D

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
SunnyStudioNeo said:
High adoption rate definitely helps iOS developers as well.
Click to expand...

Not really. The significance is not in adoption rate. It's in how many can't update.

If you want your App to work on devices that are no longer being updated, then you must still do additional work to make that happen. For the oldest devices, it's not possible to do that anymore.

The original iPhone/iPod touch can only run iOS 3.1.3
The iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2nd generation can only run iOS 4.2.1
The original iPad/iPod touch 3rd generation can only run iOS 5.1.1
Currently supported devices might be running iOS 6.0, 6.0.1 or an older version

Quite a few iOS Apps support iOS 4, 5 and 6 to cover the above devices.

All of this is completely true of Android. There are far more minor releases (particularly of Gingerbread - 2.3.x), but these are not too significant for developers to deal with. The MAJOR releases are more significant, but there are not as many of them.

If you're supporting three OS versions, it doesn't matter how many people are actually using each of them - you still have to do extra work for each.
 
Last edited:
I

isoft7

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2011
965
564
Hah... hardly a fair comparison.

Apple controls the distribution of iOS to all of their consumer market.

Google on the other hand releases the Android code tree, via AOSP to the market and lets the individual manufacturers take it from there. (HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, etc)

This is due to the specific and individual demands of the maker specific hardware platform... as well as their respective UI overlays. (Sense, Touchwiz, etc)

Integrated iOS 6 into the iPhone environment is a rather simple process, Android 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 is a very very different matter.
 
S

SunnyStudioNeo

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2011
161
0
Daveoc64 said:
Not really. The significance is not in adoption rate. It's in how many can't update.

If you want your App to work on devices that are no longer being updated, then you must still do additional work to make that happen. For the oldest devices, it's not possible to do that anymore.

The original iPhone/iPod touch can only run iOS 3.1.3
The iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2nd generation can only run iOS 4.2.1
The original iPad/iPod touch 3rd generation can only run iOS 5.1.1
Currently supported devices might be running iOS 6.0, 6.0.1 or an older version

Quite a few iOS Apps support iOS 4, 5 and 6 to cover the above devices.

All of this is completely true of Android. There are far more minor releases (particularly of Gingerbread - 2.3.x), but these are not too significant for developers to deal with. The MAJOR releases are more significant, but there are not as many of them.

If you're supporting three OS versions, it doesn't matter how many people are actually using each of them - you still have to do extra work for each.
Click to expand...

All you're saying is based on the assumption that apps support all OS versions. But if the adoption rate for an old OS is only 2%, to support it means not only extra work, but also means Not using some new technologies, then developers should drop the support for the old OS, because that would serve 98% much better.
 
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Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
SunnyStudioNeo said:
All you're saying is based on the assumption that apps support all OS versions.
Click to expand...

If you check the App Store, most do (4.2.1+ at least).

SunnyStudioNeo said:
But if the adoption rate for an old OS is only 2%, to support it means not only extra work, but also means Not using some new technologies,
Click to expand...

It's "easy" to target the new features of both Android and iOS while maintaining compatibility with older versions.
 
S

SunnyStudioNeo

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2011
161
0
Daveoc64 said:
If you check the App Store, most do (4.2.1+ at least).



It's "easy" to target the new features of both Android and iOS while maintaining compatibility with older versions.
Click to expand...

Not in the case of ARC, not in the case of auto layout, they are not available on older devices. To maintain the same code quality on older iOS, you'll need lots more time, which would have been investigated in user loved new feature. Backward compatibility is always possible to do, but sometimes just not cost effective given your development time.
 
Scrub175

Scrub175

macrumors 6502
Apr 25, 2012
487
13
Port St Lucie FL
isoft7 said:
Hah... hardly a fair comparison.

Apple controls the distribution of iOS to all of their consumer market.

Google on the other hand releases the Android code tree, via AOSP to the market and lets the individual manufacturers take it from there. (HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, etc)

This is due to the specific and individual demands of the maker specific hardware platform... as well as their respective UI overlays. (Sense, Touchwiz, etc)

Integrated iOS 6 into the iPhone environment is a rather simple process, Android 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 is a very very different matter.
Click to expand...

But an absolutely fair question and a good measure of the entire ecosystem. I as many prefer the environment of apple compared to android. Your dismissal is exactly the reason why this this important and what most android users avoid. Look at the pie chart, very few current device owners run even the second latest and greatest android OS. No spin on that.

Android and its supporting manufactures are in a race that has no end and alienates its supporters/buyers. This is a major gap if you ask me.
 
S

SunnyStudioNeo

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2011
161
0
Daveoc64 said:
Neither of those are user facing features - they're developer conveniences.
Click to expand...

They are not features, but they ARE user facing. Every piece of the code is actually used by users. That's why even if some code is not feature-related, you still want to fully test and make it robust and performant.
 
D

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
SunnyStudioNeo said:
They are not features, but they ARE user facing. Every piece of the code is actually used by users. That's why even if some code is not feature-related, you still want to fully test and make it robust and performant.
Click to expand...

You can tell by using an App whether it was developed using ARC? I doubt it.

It's nothing to do with testing. Both the features you described are something that developers should worry about, not users.
 
N

nw9

macrumors regular
May 1, 2012
115
1
isoft7 said:
Google on the other hand releases the Android code tree, via AOSP to the market and lets the individual manufacturers take it from there. (HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, etc)

This is due to the specific and individual demands of the maker specific hardware platform... as well as their respective UI overlays. (Sense, Touchwiz, etc)

Integrated iOS 6 into the iPhone environment is a rather simple process, Android 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 is a very very different matter.
Click to expand...
This is part of the reason why I prefer iOS over Android. With iOS we the user are able to decide if we want to upgrade to the latest OS. As long as a person has a fairly recent iPhone they can upgrade to the lastest iOS.

With Android you are completely dependent on the phone manufacturer or phone carrier. Even if people wanted the latest Android OS, they can't always get it because of those limitations, or they get it much later than what iPhone owners are used to having. It also doesn't matter how recent your Android phone is either because if your phone manufacturer decides not to support the latest Android OS then you are out of luck. You have to buy a diferent phone and hope they will support all of the latest updates.
 
S

SunnyStudioNeo

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2011
161
0
Daveoc64 said:
You can tell by using an App whether it was developed using ARC? I doubt it.

It's nothing to do with testing. Both the features you described are something that developers should worry about, not users.
Click to expand...

You're saying iOS apps should be compatible with Android? :)
 
faroZ06

faroZ06

macrumors 68040
Apr 3, 2009
3,387
1
Was Honeycomb a big failure or something? It has a tiny percentage. I remember that that's the version that came with the terrible Motorola Xoom.

----------
isoft7 said:
Integrated iOS 6 into the iPhone environment is a rather simple process, Android 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 is a very very different matter.
Click to expand...

Isn't that part of what the pie chart says? It shows how annoying it is to update and how fragmented Android is among other factors.
 
B

BlaqkAudio

macrumors 6502
Jun 24, 2008
495
23
New York
faroZ06 said:
Was Honeycomb a big failure or something? It has a tiny percentage. I remember that that's the version that came with the terrible Motorola Xoom.
Click to expand...
It was never made public. Google rushed it out just for the Xoom, but withheld the source code because they didn't want people porting it over to phones when the UI was designed for tablets.
 
Stelv

Stelv

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2012
24
0
Earth
The Android update process is a huge mess. 4.0 came out a year ago. Even with root some phones can't get the latest software. Manufacturers and Carriers do it on purpose so you will have to buy a new phone. This is one of the many reasons I left Android after 2+ years. Your only option for updates is the GSM Nexus and that phone has it's own set of issues.
 
OldSchoolMacGuy

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
Hard to have good adoption rates when only a handful of even newer devices support the latest OS and the carriers, not the phone makers, push the updates.
 
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