iOS 8 Downloads Cause Spike in Web Traffic as Adoption Rate Climbs Slowly

[MacRumors]

Apple yesterday released iOS 8 to the public, opening the doors for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners to download and install Apple's latest version of iOS on their devices. According to The Guardian, this release caused internet traffic to surge in the UK by as much as 60 percent compared to the same time the previous day as millions of iOS users rushed to update their devices.

LONAP web traffic data from iOS launch timeframe (blue) vs. previous day (red)​

Data from LONAP shows that web traffic surged just as iOS 8 was released at 6:00 PM UK time. Traffic remained strong for several hours, with a peak at 8:00 PM in the UK as more than 70 gigabits per second were being transferred through LONAP's exchange.

iOS 8 adoption from Mixpanel​

iOS 8 may have caused web traffic to briefly increase, but the first-day adoption rate of the mobile operating system is relatively low when compared to previous iOS rollouts. According to analytics firm Mixpanel, only 14 percent of the iOS devices that it tracks are currently running iOS 8. Data from mobile marketing company Fiksu shows a similar slow uptake in iOS 8 with the adoption of Apple's latest iOS version trailing the last that of the last several iOS launches.

Fiksu iOS 8 Tracker​

The slower update rate may be due to a record number of iPhone owners purchasing new devices. Apple sold more than four million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units in the first 24 hours that pre-orders were available last week. Customers who are receiving a new phone in the coming weeks may delay upgrading their current device, opting instead to prepare the handset for sale.

Another factor may be the large storage size required for the over-the-air updates. Though the iOS 8 update was just over 1 GB in size, it required 4.6 GB of free storage space on an iPhone and almost 7 GB of free storage on an iPad for installation. That's almost half the free space available on a 16 GB device, forcing many owners to decide whether to delete content from their devices or install the update.

Article Link: iOS 8 Downloads Cause Spike in Web Traffic as Adoption Rate Climbs Slowly

 

[Dowjohnny]

Would be even more if the servers wouldn't be unavailable all the time on releases..

 

[Merkie]

The slower update rate may be due to a record number of iPhone owners purchasing new devices. Apple sold more than four million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units in the first 24 hours that pre-orders were available last week. Customers who are receiving a new phone in the coming weeks may delay upgrading their current device, opting instead to prepare the handset for sale.

Sounds far fetched to me. I think the share of iPhones that is not eligible for the iOS 8 update is much larger than the share of devices not eligible for the iOS 7 update was last year. The iPhone 4 was much more popular than the 3GS.

 

[Paradoxally]

No, it's because iOS 8 runs like crap on anything lower than an iPhone 5. iOS 8 is amazing on big screens, 3.5"...nah.

And millions of people still have a 4S.

 

[k1121j]

i would stink to own an 8GB device with this update

 

[Dilster3k]

The requirement of needing 5+ GB free on the device for a download that was less than 2 GB is the dumbest thing.

 

[japanime]

i would stink to own an 8GB device with this update

Why would that make you stink?

 

[Paradoxally]

The requirement of needing 5+ GB free on the device for a download that was less than 2 GB is the dumbest thing.

You do realize the update needs to be extracted, right? It's like downloading a zipped file on your computer and you need zip file space + extracted space on your computer to be able to extract it correctly.

 

[Bare]

We updated an iPad 3, iPad Air, iPad mini Retina, and an iPhone 5 (even though my 6 Plus is arriving tomorrow) yesterday. I bet I'm, like, 2% of the 14% right there.

 

[BryanElliott]

And so it begins, the slow start of the internet meltdown.

 

[roland.g]

Oh no, it's a failure! :roll eyes:

Is that something like "Nobody drink the beer! The beer has gone bad!!"

 

[GrabASnookie]

My family members aren't downloading for two reasons, one they don't have enough memory and I'm not going to explain to each and everyone of them one to do and secondly, they are all buying or receiving new iPhones this weekend.

I can understand why the adoption rate might be lower this time.

 

[heisenberg123]

No, it's because iOS 8 runs like crap on anything lower than an iPhone 5. iOS 8 is amazing on big screens, 3.5"...nah.

And millions of people still have a 4S.

I believe 4s is the oldest device it works on so granted it would not run very well if you had bare minimum specs, most software/operating systems would be the same

thats why you often see

Min requirements and recomended

 

[TechZeke]

The requirement of needing 5+ GB free on the device for a download that was less than 2 GB is the dumbest thing.

That's the reason I haven't updated. The 5gb requirement when most Apple devices are only 8 or 16GB(And Apple KNOWS this) seems pretty ridiculous. The person with the 8gb phone probably has to erase their entire phone for the update.

 

[Tankmaze]

I'm updating all of my iOS devices except the 4s.

 

[smithrh]

Can confirm my normally rock-solid and fast internet service was reduced to mediocrity yesterday.

Not just Apple sites, but everything...

It's back to normal this morning.

 

[TimUSCA]

Would be even more if the servers wouldn't be unavailable all the time on releases..

They aren't available BECAUSE iOS 8 is popular.

 

[Bare]

Would be even more if the servers wouldn't be unavailable all the time on releases..

HAHAHAHAHA YEAH APPLE SUCKS WTF

I actually think the rollout of iOS 8 went well compared to past major software updates. You had to wait in line for a bit after you requested the download, but after that, everything went pretty quickly, at least for me.

I've had to restart my devices in order to get Handoff and some other features working properly, but to be totally up and running on all my devices less than 24 hours after the release of a new version of software is pretty darn good.

 

[Paradoxally]

I believe 4s is the oldest device it works on so granted it would not run very well if you had bare minimum specs, most software/operating systems would be the same

Well, not really. You can run Mavericks/Yosemite well on a 2008 MBPro, just put in an SSD and get it up to max RAM. You can't really do that on a phone.

 

[Schranke]

I have urged all I know who have an 4S not to upgrade.

And since the media have been out warning about a big bug in the system here in Denmark I think many did not update their phone.
The bug is not that big and will only affect people who use the forward call to another phone ( the carrier provide this service)

But honestly there is nothing really new in iOS8 yet, give us 10.10 so we can start using the nice features

 

[Rogifan]

Another factor may be the large storage size required for the over-the-air updates. Though the iOS 8 update was just over 1 GB in size, it required 4.6 GB of free storage space on an iPhone and almost 7 GB of free storage on an iPad for installation. That's almost half the free space available on a 16 GB device, forcing many owners to decide whether to delete content from their devices or install the update.

Are you forced to delete content if you update via iTunes? Or is it just when doing OTA updates?

 

[heisenberg123]

I have urged all I know who have an 4S not to upgrade.

And since the media have been out warning about a big bug in the system here in Denmark I think many did not update their phone.
The bug is not that big and will only affect people who use the forward call to another phone ( the carrier provide this service)

But honestly there is nothing really new in iOS8 yet, give us 10.10 so we can start using the nice features

I like the recently deleted photos feature, unless that was in iOS7 and I never realized it

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

No, it's because iOS 8 runs like crap on anything lower than an iPhone 5. iOS 8 is amazing on big screens, 3.5"...nah.

And millions of people still have a 4S.

I installed it on my 64 GB iPhone 4S and I have no regrets. It feels much quicker than iOS 7, but that might be because iOS 8 has so many UX improvements that just make it feel faster, as opposed to it actually loading things faster. As an example of a UX improvement, the ability to insert a recent picture into a message without pulling up your entire photo library. It's a lot less visual information for your brain to process and fewer taps to make, just making it all feel quicker and smoother.

 

[heisenberg123]

Are you forced to delete content if you update via iTunes? Or is it just when doing OTA updates?

just OTA, via iTunes the download and extraction is done on the computer

 

[Paradoxally]

Are you forced to delete content if you update via iTunes? Or is it just when doing OTA updates?

Just OTA, on a computer it will extract to the HD and not the phone's memory.