Developer Sees Quick Adoption of iOS 5.1 Amongst Users

[MacRumors]

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]

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]

is this over-the-air updates that have made the difference? What do people think?

 

[MacOG728893]

I'm still on 5.0.1 to keep my jailbreak!

 

[charlieegan3]

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.

 

[chago04]

Probably because we were hoping for a real battery fix.

 

[Aquaduck04]

deleted

 

[SwiftLives]

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™

 

[bushido]

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.

yea thats also true and i'm kinda OCD when it comes to stuff like this anyway ^^

 

[charlieegan3]

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]

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.

 

[charlieegan3]

yea thats also true and i'm kinda OCD when it comes to stuff like this anyway ^^

I normally only go out of my way when there is a new feature(s)! the rest of the time I tend to just let updates happen naturally

 

[jclardy]

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

 

[charlieegan3]

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]

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?]

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]

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?

 

[Tatonnement]

Gimme redesigned MBP news!!!!!

 

[jamesr19]

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

 

[ayala421]

I gladly gave up my Jailbreak for update iOS 5.1...now I want it back

 

[PracticalMac]

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):

 

[arn]

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]

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]

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]

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.