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iOS 8 adoption lagging significantly behind iOS 7, but iPhone 6 uptake is about double its predecessors

Screen Shot 2014-10-06 at 10.26.31Within the first twenty-four hours, iOS 8 update appeared to be slower than its predecessors.  A few weeks in, this continues to be the case says analytics firm Fiksu.

After twelve days, both iOS 6 and iOS 7 had comfortably crossed the 50% mark for iOS usage. By contrast, iOS 8 is yet to hit the 40% mark according to Fiksu’s measurements. An independent study from Mixpanel says iOS 8 is closer to 50%, but it is still far behind iOS 7’s rate of uptake.

At least, iOS 8 is ahead of iOS 5 in terms of usage, which should be expected given that iOS 4 users wanting to upgrade to iOS 5 had to plug in to iTunes to update. Since that change, both iOS 6 and iOS 7’s upgrade rates were almost double that of iOS 5. For reasons not fully known, iOS 8 currently sits about halfway between these two.

Screen Shot 2014-10-06 at 10.42.57

Meanwhile, iPhone 6 adoption is record-setting. The graph above shows iPhone adoption (as a percentage of total iPhones in use) in the days after release. The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s followed near-identical growth path, but the iPhone 6 is more than double that rate. As of 17 days since release, the iPhone 6 has touched the 4% level. For comparison, the combined share of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c was about 3% in the same period.

That’s without adding in iPhone 6 Plus usage. Adoption of the larger 5.5 inch device appears to be slightly more than the iPhone 5c right now. From this data, both models of iPhone 6 crossed 5% of total iPhone usage in under 18 days. This is roughly twice the combined uptake of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Note that these figures are all based on current iPhone usage. Although the information should be similar, in some cases, usage rates may vary wildly to sales. However, it is important to remember that in absolute units, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are exceeding iPhone 5 series devices even more, as the absolute base of phones is larger now than in previous years.

On an ‘official’ basis, Apple last updated its iOS adoption statistics on the 21st of September, saying that 46% of iOS users visiting the App Store were running iOS 8. Historically, this number is always greater than third parties numbers, as they track wider scope of usage characteristics beyond visits to the App Store.

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Comments

  1. Crimson Cage - 9 years ago

    I actually use iOS 5.1.1 because my iPad 1 can’t go any higher than that. My iPad 2, on the other hand, has some issues with storage and therefore, it’s still running iOS 6.1.3.

    I keep both my iPhone 5C and iPod 5 at iOS 7.1.2 because I’m still uncertain about the stability in iOS 8. I believe most people who used Apple since iOS 4 will know that the first fews release are always the one with the most bugs.

  2. Updating a 16 GB device to IOS8 is probably the main cause. Had to completely wipe the ipad 16 GB of my mother to install IOS8. on our other devices , 32 and 64 GB, IOS installation was less of a hassle

  3. Christian Reuter - 9 years ago

    That is easy: I know a few people who did not upgrade because it requires them to free up memory on their iPhone for installation. Especially on the 16 gig iPhones this can be difficult. Plus iOS 8 looks like iOS 7, so those people did not see the – immediate – need. I spoke to a few, which simply decided to wait until they were able to get an iPhone 6. Basically I did the same, get an iPhone 6 and get rid of the iPhone 5 16 gig.

  4. maillard (@maillardy) - 9 years ago

    “… both iOS 6 and iOS 7’s upgrade rates were almost double that of iOS 5. For reasons not fully known, iOS 8 currently sits about halfway between these two.”

    What about updates that are bigger than the free space people have left on their 8/16 GB devices? That might be the main reason for slower adoption rates. It requires people to wipe apps or use iTunes again and that might make them dropout.

    • 89p13 - 9 years ago

      Good Point. And, if you add in the fiasco that 8.0.1 introduced, I think many people are nervous about upgrading to 8.0.X. It seems to be a “wait and see” from some of the people I deal with, who have previous generation phones.

      • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

        8.0.1 was only available for a few hours. As for the lack of room, that’s what the computer is for.

    • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

      iOS 7 was the buggiest version of iOS that I can recall and I’ve used each since the first. A lot of people suffered and I suppose that left more than a few gun shy.

      What I don’t understand is peoples’ aversion to using iTunes rather than OTA. It’s faster, more reliable and uses far less space on the phone. It’s silly. Run a program, plug in a cable and you don’t have to waste time deleting and reloading.

      • iphonery - 9 years ago

        I thought backing up, wiping the phone, then upgrading it was easier than deleting apps/pictures to make room. After it upgraded, I restored from back up.

      • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

        I have a 64GB 5s with over 4000 songs compressed to 192kbps. Wiping the phone and restoring from a backup takes hours! Updating through iTunes took 20 to 30 minutes. That’s why I think people who insist on OTA are nuts.

    • arjay67 - 9 years ago

      Another addition to the “wait and see” camp are those folks with the 4S. Early reviews of iOS8 performance on the 4S were mixed so I know several people who are holding off.

      • Nycko Heimberg - 9 years ago

        With very good sales,
        Apple has sold many many iPhones 4.
        It is normal to notice this reduction.
        Not compatible iPhone 4 with iOs 8.x ;-)

    • darkenv2 - 9 years ago

      You are dead on. I’ve had many people ask me how they can upgrade to iOS 8 because they can’t do it OTA since they don’t have enough free space on their phones, I tell them through they’re computer and they sat nevermind then. People don’t like having to update through their computers anymore, this is why I’m still upset Apple kept the 16GB model iPhones around.

      • Mike Knopp (@mknopp) - 9 years ago

        Apple is starting to exhibit a very bad pattern. They are holding onto the old for too long.

        They kept the A5 processor for too long, and that is partially contributing to this slower adoption rate. Given the comments that I have heard about the performance on A5 processors I have decided to wait to upgrade any device using an A5 processor (This includes the iPad 2 and iPad Mini 1, both of which were sold for a long time after newer processors were available. Heck, the iPad Mini 1 is STILL being sold.)

        The new A5 processor is the 16GB storage size. They should have retired this anemic storage size last year, and even when they moved up every other storage size they still kept the stupidly small 16GB version instead of moving the lowest size to 32GB. And all for what? To save a couple of bucks per device? Yeah that might end up being several million dollars total for them, but that is bean counting for Apple and they had better be very wary of that attitude. Nothing will ruin an engineering driven company faster then the bean counters taking charge.

        Save a few cents here and a few cents there and ruin a reputation faster then you can blink.

      • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

        @darkenv2 Are people really that lazy or ignorant that they can’t be bothered to do an update through iTunes? If you do the update through the computer then the computer uses its own space for the downloaded and then expanded installer, its faster and more reliable. Plugging in a cable is not that hard.

        8.0.2 isn’t perfect, but it’s better than 7.x and from my experience not that noticeably slower on a 4s. It can use a few tweaks here and there and won’t be fully functional until Yosemite comes out, but we all know that.

        One thing Apple should make extremely clear is that major updates should NOT be done OTA, particularly on low capacity phones. It just means a lot more work for the consumer that can easily be avoided.

        My last OTA update was to 7.0 on a 64GB 4s and it left my phone in DFU mode. Not fun.

      • bb1111116 - 9 years ago

        darkenv2 says:
        “People don’t like having to update through their computers anymore”

        Similar situation with my wife. She didn’t want to hassle using iTunes to update her iPhone 5.
        I told her that iTunes could do a complete backup and also could do the update with no memory problems.
        She then told me to do it which I did.

        Soon after we both got a 64GB iPhone 6. Problem solved.

      • jerjuan (@jerjuan) - 9 years ago

        I don’t think it is “laziness or ignorants” at all that “people can’t be bothered to do an update through iTunes”…. I believe it’s more that people have ditched desktops altogether and that option no longer exists!

        I can think of at least a dozen people I know who own iOS devices but don’t own a desktop of any kind. Apple themselves pushed / promoted this behavior with the release of the iPad (see the 2010 Keynote iPad announcement) by positioning it to outperform in the areas most people used a desktop, netbook, laptop. However they failed to account for this in the choices they have made (i.e.. iOS devices minimum storage size).

        Apple should have killed off 16GB iOS devices at the worst a year ago. If they are smart they will do something to slow or kill off the sale of current 16GB devices NOW…. recall or give 16GB iPhone 6 buyers 100 gift card and introduce 32GB as a replacement at the lowest price point. This will help to alleviate future upgrade issues.

      • jerjuan (@jerjuan) - 9 years ago

        A big complaint I hear as a reason people don’t want to upgrade is they are afraid they will loose their photos. Apple should provide a step in the upgrade process to help upload their photos to iCloud / regardless of available iCloud storage space, even if temporary. They could also use the ‘used photo library storage space’ in the upgrade processes available storage space calculation for users requesting an iOS upgrade, if the user has preselected to upload their photos.

  5. its not fisku! :)

  6. Jono Young (@chsweb) - 9 years ago

    Agree with the other comments here, Apple’s major goof on iOS 8 is the size required to upgrade. Had Apple replaced the 16GB model iPhone 5s with a 32GB model, upgrade rates would have been extremely high. iOS 8 amazing, not having room to install it is not.

  7. Kevin Neal - 9 years ago

    ” At least, iOS 8 is ahead of iOS 5 in terms of usage, which should be expected given that iOS 4 users wanting to upgrade to iOS 5 had to plug in to iTunes to update. Since that change, both iOS 6 and iOS 7’s upgrade rates were almost double that of iOS 5. For reasons not fully known, iOS 8 currently sits about halfway between these two. ”

    I think you answered your own question here, a significant number of users are unable to update over the air because they don’t have enough space, and are unwilling to delete a load of content, so for many iOS 8 is back to being a plug in update

    • ikir - 9 years ago

      Users still have all photos and videos in original size, they are supposed to be imported, deleted and maybe loaded again. Most users have their iPhone full of photos

  8. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you should. Some people were complaining about 8 to 12 hour downloads while I waited about six hours after the release and my phone was up and running in less than half an hour. Besides, I don’t trust the iCloud backups. I had a problem with the 8.0.2 update that corrupted my backup. Fortunately I had a good copy on a local back up drive and restored my phone from that.

    A major upgrade CAN be done OTA but it’s not recommended.

  9. freediverx - 9 years ago

    – Serious 8.0.1 glitches
    – Best new features:
    – dependent on third party app development
    – dependent on as yet unavailable Yosemite OS update
    – only supported on newish desktop hardware
    – potentially risky to enable (e.g., iCloud Drive, Photos in the Cloud)

  10. ikir - 9 years ago

    1-users are stupid, they don’t know the importance of the update and they don’t know when they need to check.
    2- still slow on 4s (not much)

  11. standardpull - 9 years ago

    Why not? In all, I find iOS8 a great leap ahead in mobile operating systems. Its ease of use and the feature set is very impressive. The UI is much refined, and its speedy and efficient. Apple has really done top notch work on this release. I am about 30 times happier with iOS8 than I was with iOS7.

    But we haven’t upgraded every device in the household. Why not? Because none of our favorite apps require it at this point, and couple that with the idea that I’ll have to make some free space available on some these older devices and my conclusion is “I’ll do it some other time”. Oh, and add the idea that I want to check out that Family Sharing stuff, which would be cool to set up on each device.

  12. Tim Lathrop - 9 years ago

    My IPAD 2 ran horribly on IOS 8 I flipped back while you still could. Address the 4S and IPAD 2 issues and I will upgrade. For now it’s a downgrade.

  13. Chad (@cdavis045) - 9 years ago

    Size of install
    The perks of iOS8 over 7 are not readily apparent to average user

    One of the biggest consequences to moving to the post pc era is that these huge upgrades now require a PC to install due to their size and many folks don’t have a pc OR haven’t been keeping their version of itunes / etc up-to-date.

  14. William Robinson - 9 years ago

    I don’t dare upgrade my iPad2 to iOS8 due to the horror stories that fill the Apple Support forums. I don’t know why Apple claimed it would run on the iPad2—run, yes; run well,no.

    Of course the downside of not upgrading my iPad is that many of the new upgrades (especially Apple’s apps) require iOS8. For many apps “Compatible with iOS8” apparently means will only run on iOS 8.

  15. Taste_of_Apple - 9 years ago

    Interesting numbers. Outwardly iOS 8 isn’t much different from 7. Aside from the visuals, iOS 8 is a major advance in the functionality of the iPhone. Pretty surprising it isn’t doing as well.

  16. Steve Grenier - 9 years ago

    Compared to iOS 7 iOS 8 feels like a beta. I imagine many people don’t want to switch until it’s 8.1 or 8.2 depending how fast they push out the next update.

    • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

      In my case 8.0.2 feels more stable than 7.1.1. So far iOS 8 seems like a continuation of iOS 7, just with more features.

  17. ssanook - 9 years ago

    Also lots of businesses like our with 20K employees are waiting for the Mobil Iron update and stability before allowing users to upgrade. This is a standard practice with any and all OS.

  18. Computer_Whiz123 - 9 years ago

    People will soon realize the productive power of iOS 8…

  19. meaqvar - 9 years ago

    My opinion with my experience is that iOS8 OTA requires a lot of free space (aprox. 1.2GB or more ..) which regular 16GB users usually does not have. I personaly stucked with this problem and it forced me to update it using itunes and cable. I guess it is the reason …

  20. Doesn’t help that we need over 5GB of space to download it… Slightly unrealistic.

    • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

      Can you explain to me why you haven’t just plugged your phone into a computer and done the update through iTunes?

  21. Jason Frost - 9 years ago

    Yeah I agree with some of the other posters. It’s not “reasons unknown”, the reason is because you have to have between 4.5 and 5 GB of free space on your phone to install it OTA. Unfortunately most users don’t know then and won’t install using iTunes. I don’t remember how much space iOS 7 took, but I don’t think it was near 4.5 GB.

  22. g0bez - 9 years ago

    I’ll be interested to see the numbers on this once the iOS8 jailbreak is released, and again once iPhone 6/+ is jailbroken.

    • jerjuan (@jerjuan) - 9 years ago

      Could you explain what jailbreak features you think might encourage one to hold off? I’m not saying your point isn’t valid… I just can’t see a reasonable reason to hold off upgrading or purchasing a iPhone 6 until a jailbreak is available. Thanks.

  23. erikstenson - 9 years ago

    i definitely won’t be updating my iphone 5 to ios 8 it doesn’t off any features that i want. i wish i would have kept ios6.1.4 but at least now that i’m jailbroken on 7.1 i can customize away a lot of what i hate about ios7 like the signal dots lol.

  24. GrumpyFan - 9 years ago

    Two reasons I’m guessing as why upgrades have slowed down. 1) It requires 4.7gb of space. Most people have filled their phone with pictures, music and apps that they either don’t know how to back up securely, or don’t want to wipe off their phone. 2) There are lots of reported issues floating around. Older devices like the iPad2 and iPad air have performance issues with the new OS and word has traveled fast from those who have updated.

    Personally, I have an iPad2 that I loaded iOS8 (8.02) on and regret. If there was a way to revert/downgrade, I would, because I’m highly disappointed with this version. It’s much slower and seems to freeze frequently while doing next to nothing.

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Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.