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Very true. iOS 7 was light years ago.

While it seems Apple is too big to fail, it's becoming apparent that there is a distant possibility they may be reduced to a shadow of their former selves.

Trundling along offering products to the Apple Faithful and other hangers on. Remaining profitable but no longer a leader in any particular category.

A situation once unimaginable suddenly becomes reality. It’s happened before to once great companies.
Back in the days Apple used to care about the final product.
Apple now only cares about shareholders happy and profit.
This is the situation we are in. And even if Tim was gone, I’m not sure it’s gonna change.
 
Just as frustrating as the HORRIBLE TERRIBLE BUGS in ios 26.2 (seemed worse than previous?) is that APPLE is so slow to respond. We are sitting here on 3months and three weeks, and MAJOR BLUETOOTH issues, MAJOR screen dimming/AutoBrightness issues. BMS issues. Graphics Re-draw errors, the list goes on and on. This extends to Tahoe too. Tahoe screwed up my Studio display, also screws up on my M4 MacBook Pro truetone, & Brightness. This is an embarrassment, we are talking about apple's own stuff its failing on! Not just Apple's own Hardware but Pro level $$$$ what a slap in the face. Fix it Apple. Faster.
 
I’m not surprised. Visually its a stark contrast to what people are familiar with. Functionally there are improvements but one has to find them. I suspect people are fatigued with updating every year and not seeing why they need to. I did and while I don’t regret it, I’m moderately more informed/curious than most. The jump from 18 to 26 is jarring and confusing, but not that big of a deal in reality. Apple hasn’t convinced the masses otherwise. They, Apple, think consumers are asleep and will just say “yes” when presented with the prompt to update.
Plot twist: Apple is asleep and out of touch with their customers…
 
I wonder what they're using for these analytics. I'm on 26.2 but seen some apps that think I'm on 18.7. The OS might have to report out a false version to avoid breaking some analytics tools since there was a jump from 18 to 26.
Yeah, it’s definitely this. Similarly, macOS Tahoe can report itself as macOS 16 instead of 26 to keep compatibility from breaking.
Anyone who uses their brains knows that Apple’s update figures didn’t go from 89% last year to 25% this year, that’s just ridiculous.
I don’t doubt that the adoption rate is slower, maybe even dramatically slower, but it’s absolutely not 64% slower.
Even just assuming that this figure only counts 1 billion devices, that means last year 890 Million people were running the latest update after four months, and this year it’s only… 250 Million?
That’s just silly, especially since Apple has reportedly already sold around 90 million iPhone 17 series units that can literally only run 26.
Again, not denying that adoption of 26 is slower, it definitely is, but certainly not 64% slower or anywhere close to that.
There is absolutely a flaw in the analytics somewhere in the chain, either on apples end or the website’s.
I guess we will see what Apple has to say on January 30.
 
I think it’s due to how Apple seems to have chosen to distribute it. They seem to not force it on people like usual.

I am an iPhone nerd so I can easily tell that most people around me are also still on iOS18. I asked a few of them and none of them was aware of the update or could remember actively declining it.

Most of these people actually had auto updates turned on yet the iPhone was not installing ios26.

They all had to manually go to the settings menu to manually select and install it.
You have to ask why Apple is not pushing 26 more to those on 18, at this point. I think that’s telling.
 
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iOS 26 is actually fine (and some new features are actually quite useful). It is macOS Tahoe I abhorred
Interesting since Tahoe has way fewer liquid glass issues. I suppose it depends on what you do/use, but for me Tahoe was a fairly basic update with few big rewards but no real problems either.
 
Here’s to hoping this leads to increased focus on stability, usability and actual consistency this fall. The 10 to 15% are certainly very loud when you go to Reddit but numbers don’t lie.
 
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You have to ask why Apple is not pushing 26 more to those on 18, at this point. I think that’s telling.
I think they’ve been trying pretty hard. Changing which OS (18.7.2 or 26.2) is highlighted (meaning muscle memory will tend to make one choose 26 until after it’s too late), giving owners of more recent devices no other choice but 26.2 in order to get the last malware patch… and more.
 
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MacRumour comments about iOS26 is why I have not bought my iPhone 17 yet or updated my iPhone 13 from iOS18
While I see no big advantage to liquid glass, it also doesn't cause me any real pain once I tweaked a couple user settings. I had minor problems quickly seeing some things like notifications on the lock screen but that's better with the settings. Everything else is fine.
 
The design is too low-contrast.
There is no point in transparancy.
Apple failed to adhere to the most basic of design principles, the same principles that apply to other 2D media such as print media.
Apple devices are 2D devices. There's no functional value in making them have a "false 3D" look.
One can put a false-3D button on the page of an ink-on-paper print edition of the New York Times but this does make make it 3D. It's 2D and always will be. The 3D is pure nonsense fakery.
These design principles exist for a reason. Because they work. They're functional.
The varying size of rounded corners on macOS is sloppy and inconsistent.
The large size of Finder windows looks goofy.
 
The white text on white background when selecting Wi-Fi networks from the control center would disagree with you
Interesting. I wonder why you have that and not me. Some settings maybe? But that reminds me, I have seen something similar in the Kindle app where the text search field has white text on a white background. I didn't think this was Tahoe related until you mentioned your problem.
 
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