iOS 14 Now Installed on 90% of iPhones Released in Last Four Years

[Apple_Robert]

It's kind of easy when you force adoption by not signing older versions of the software.

A user doesn't have to update the OS. There are ways to avoid that, although I don't think it wise to not update.

 

[GSWForever8]

Google used to publish version distribution stats for Android but it looks like that's no longer available to the public, just to developers.

Here's a peek at where things were in Feb.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/lkkrn4

Wow. Looks like Android users love old software and love having their data being hacked.

 

[GSWForever8]

Well the bummer about that is is that Apple doesn't support anything but the current OS that they are delivering to users. They cut of all ability to load an older OS. A marketing standpoint when you force people to move forward with no choice of course you're going to have a adoption rates does it mean that people want those features or need them.

No. Older software also get security updates.

 

[Abazigal]

Who cares if it's iOS 14 or 20 when it's still braindead and you can't place app icons anywhere on home screen like towards the bottom for one-handed reachability, can't split screen multitask, no pen support, lack of freedom to install apps like emulators/torrent clients/Kodi/etc., can't sideload apps like Fortnite, etc.

We each pick our poison. I probably can't do any of the aforementioned tasks on my iPhone (though I suppose I could use a large widget to push app icons closer to the bottom), but at the same time, an android phone can't use airdrop, let me make calls on my Mac (not without external software support at any rate), is missing a rich ecosystem of apps like shortcuts, iMovie, fantastical, Apollo, notability, tweetbot and overcast, and I find that iOS generally has a more robust system for sharing data between apps.

If I were to compare the two, it seems that the list of features you mentioned for android is more about being able to customise the look of my device and accessing more traditional PC features (which frankly speaking, I have long moved beyond since using my iPad in 2012). The things an android phone lets me do has very little to do with actually getting any "real work" done.

Many of the people I talk to either don't sideload apps or use them to download emulators. At most, they install a custom launcher. There's Tasker, but the generally useful actions seem to revolve around trigger wifi / bluetooth / location-based automations. Stuff which I don't even have to worry or think about on my iPhone. Hardly power-user level stuff. General observation is that many people are simply not taking advantage of the features that supposedly make android unique compared to iOS.

Conversely, the benefits of iOS I stated is geared towards letting people actually do more with their mobile devices, and this list of features extends to the iPad as well, where users are able to edit podcasts using ferrite or edit video via lumafusion.

I think this is where Android loses the fight for me. The strengths of Android that you mentioned do nothing in helping me perform tasks any better or more quickly than I am already doing on my iOS devices. Except maybe being able to read files off a usb-c thumdrive on an android phone.

 

[benspratling]

oh... so that's why we got a frantic "install this os update now on all your devices with important and urgent security fixes" last week. they wanted to up their stats.

 

[mr.steevo]

Folks take this too much for granted, I remember paying £70 for the ROM based card upgrade for Windows CE on my original HP PDA.. then it was a promise that devices could be flashed to a new version but you would find that most manufacturers wouldn't do the QA for a new version but would instead try to sell you a brand new device.

Android is much better but iOS can't be beaten for the number of upgrades made available to devices sometimes many years old!

I remember having to pay $10 to upgrade the OS (iPhone 2.0) on my iPod Touch.

 

[iamasmith]

I remember having to pay $10 to upgrade the OS (iPhone 2.0) on my iPod Touch.

Actually I did that as well, but I think it was to unlock Mail app and others that were otherwise hidden on iPod Touch vs iPhone. You still got the software update without but minus the app unlock.

 

[inkswamp]

This data is largely irrelevant. A proper comparison would be top tier android devices (Samsung, huawei, xiomi, etc) versus their Apple counterparts. Which as an owner of a galaxy s10 I have to say get their updates pretty much as frequently as the iOS devices

Fair point but the problem is that most consumers aren't looking to have to do that much research into whether a vendor is going to support them. They just know that Android is something they want. It really does come back to Google never haven't implemented any kind of program to assure a quality experience. They could have done that early on, offering some form of branding (something like the old "Intel Inside" sticker) that they could promote and make it easy for buyers to know they were getting something that met some set of standards. It's strange that they chose to ignore and just let the consumers fend for themselves.

So irrelevant to you maybe, but not to the average Android customer who may be buying a phone that comes an OS several versions old and won't ever be updated.