Apple isn’t bragging on its iOS 8 adoption numbers like it has in years past because it appears uptake has been slightly slower. The reason? The much bigger iOS 8 download doesn’t fit on many people’s devices which are often stuffed to capacity with music, movies, photos and apps.
(Hint: Here’s how to slim some GBs off your iOS 8 device or install via iTunes on a Mac/PC which doesn’t require extra space)
Apple’s latest numbers are for Sunday September 21, 2014 and show that from people who visited the App Store on their iOS device, 46% were already on the new iOS 8. On one hand this number is skewed higher because most of the early adopter nature of frequent App Store visitors but on the other hand many people visit the App Store from older devices that can’t be updated to iOS 8.
Apple’s own numbers show something else slightly troubling. App Store app submissions are being delayed slightly as of iOS 8 launch with only 74% of app updates and 53% of new apps being reviewed. Apple is usually in the high 90% range on iOS as it is with Mac.
As for 9to5Mac readers’ iOS adoption, the numbers are much much higher than the general audience as you’d probably expect. This morning, we’re close to 80% iOS 8 adoption. The pie chart from Google Analytics taken at 5:30 am ET is below:
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Of course, they have also bumped a device over the edge with this update – iPhone 4.
This would also contribute a (small?) number of people who can’t update even if they want.
I do think apple should provide a point update for IOS7 for the iPhone 4 users – just the relatively small security issues, we can’t expect new features at this point in the life cycle.
On the other hand if apple is saying the life span of £450 phone which a lot of people bought on a 2 year contract is 4 years before apple stops support, then that’s something customers are going to need to take into account when considering the £550 iPhone 6.
What other company supports a specific model of smartphone for 4 years though.. seriously.. you’re lucky to get 1 to 2 years.. maybe.
Add to the fact that the release of the iPhone 6’s screen sizes has forced devs to rethink their apps, app updates would be slow as well. It’s not just a matter of re-doing it under the latest xCode.. It’s about screen size elements they have to completely rethink.. that takes time.. most devs are 1 or 2 man shows..
It’s also possible some devs (including myself) are literally rewriting at least parts of their apps in Swift. That certainly takes time but I’ve found in my personal experience so far the improvements in syntax, verbosity and overall readability alone are worth the time investment.
One thing I would also like to mention (again this is from personal experience) is that Apple made some nontrivial changes to both Xcode and Cocoa Touch from iOS 8 beta to gold master. And by nontrivial I mean I had clean building, fully functional code running on iOS 8 beta which suddenly broke in several ways in GM due to those changes and I had to refactor the code. Perhaps I wasn’t the only dev who has experienced this?
Apple isn’t every other company. Starting such comparisons is always a road to failure.
I’m still using 7.0.4
Most of the ios 8 changes are small tweaks, its not as big as Apple says it is. Plus I hate the small circle buttons for call accept/reject! The triangle buttons in 7.0.4 are way better looking. Pressing a giant red rectangle to cancel a call as opposed to one small red dot, I find this design change annoying.
The power off slide in ios 7.0.4 is also cooler with the red bar as opposed to what it is now. So until I don’t see better design changes in this regard I refuse to update
*Rectangle buttons in ios 7.0.4 <3
This isn’t meant to be an insult, but you don’t know anything about iOS8 if you say such things. There are much bigger changes in iOS8 from 7 than there were in 7 from 6.
As Bruno says you’re clueless.
OK here we go
Asides from the Quick Reply option, please tell me what else counts as a big deal?
– Widgets in Notifications?
– App Extensions? (I’m already using 1 Password shortcuts in Safari without Touch ID)
– Group Messaging?! Really
– Swipe left and right on emails to flag or delete them?
– Continuity? Oh so like I cant save an email draft and open it on another device already? I have Safari icloud On and that’s good enough for me
Go on, show me your list. Bottom line is, ios 8 looks exactly like ios 7, its got a few smart additions but nothing major to call it a BIG change.
I’m not clueless, I’d like to believe I’m pretty well informed on my iDevices. I’m not trolling, I have an iPhone 5S and iPad 4th gen that I thoroughly enjoy.
I’m just stating my opinion, so please don’t resort to insults.
Besides the things you noted below. The bigger updates were updates that allowed developers more access to the device itself. One area specifically the camera. As far as I know, you wont be able to utilize all the under the hood updates without IOS 8 – I still do not understand why you would not switch.. Siri itself works better. The keyboard even if you do not download another is better. The widgets only ADD to the experience regardless of how late they are. Group messaging removal? thats actually pretty huge. That accompanied by the DO NOT DISTURB option… Location in messages. IPHOTO… Im getting tired of typing so a better way to respond would be to ask… Why not? because of the slider??? Im so confused with some peoples way of thinking.
I guess to me those are minor changes, but if I like a design (and then that’s changed to something worse, it just really upsets me)
Notably,
The Power Slide off (red rectangle vs whatever it is now)
Call Reject/Accept (green/red rectangle bars turned to ugly circles)
Cancel Call’s large red rectangle bar turned into a hideous red dot
These changes were just not needed, but no point whining about it. Simply I’m just not compelled to upgrade to ios 8 until either A) those designs are changed to something I like or B) there are big changes or features added which I really believe I need
So waiting calmly until the next big update, we shall see (hopefully Apple’s obsession with circles is over by then)
i shouldnt upgrade. i ve ipad retina mini.. ios8 is crap! domt upgrade. slow and nothing new
Well, if you told Sheldon Cooper that, he’d go on and on about how false your statement is. LOL ‘Nothing new’
Wrong, and wrong. Thanks for trolling though.
I upgraded to iOS 8 on all my household devices. So far I have heard only positives from everyone in the house.
I see no reason not to upgrade to iOS 8.
The only issue I’ve had with iOS8 is a couple of glitchy apps on my iPad, and I figure those will be rectified soon. No problems with my 5S. Loving the Handoff feature, particularly the part where i can turn on my phone hotspot from my ipad!
“5 Gb to upgrade? Ain’t nobody got space for dat”