In just 48 hours, Apple has managed to push iOS 9 to more than 21% of iOS devices, according to the latest data from Mixpanel. That just so happens to be the same percentage of phones that Google recently announced are running the latest version of its mobile OS, Android Lollipop. But unlike iOS 9 which was just released on Wednesday, Android Lollipop was released to the public 10 months ago in November 2014…
According to Google’s latest data, Lollipop is running on just about 21% of devices. 2013’s KitKat still has 40% share of the ecosystem, while Android Jelly Bean also holds a very large stake of the market — combining the three minor revisions of Jelly Bean makes up more than 30%. The much-older Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread, and Froyo, even, still total almost 10% combined.
Ecosystem fragmentation has been an ongoing discussion, and it’s one area that Apple very clearly has the advantage. While Google is still struggling to push users to last year’s OS (and planning to introduce another update, Marshmallow, in just a few weeks), Apple has — thanks to its control of the entire ecosystem — managed to update users at a relatively astounding pace. In fact, more than 70% of 9to5Mac readers have updated to iOS 9, although the audience leans heavily toward tech savvy compared to the average iOS device user.
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Fun fact: iOS would need to reach 66% adoption for iOS 9 to actually beat the number of Android devices running Lollipop right now
Considering they’ve reached higher than 66% with iOS 8, I’m sure they can do this with iOS 9.
More of an opinion that could easily be a fact but if Apple had flooded the market with cheaper phones and free phones Apple would still have android beat and I think that’s the point of the comparison.
iOS users receive the update day one as long as their device is supported.
Even Nexus devices sometimes have to wait weeks.
Therefore this isn’t about who has the most devices on the market but rather which platform has the fastest upgrade momentum. And I’ll repeat had Apple flooded the market with as many devices as all of android’s device makers have and if all other things being equal iOS would still have the faster upgrade ratio simply because of how iOS updates are pushed out versus android and because carriers and other hardware vendors will always have to update their specific apps and OS tweaks for their new OS and due to this some android devices are left in the cold.
Sincerely former three time android flagship device owner.
Yes, that’s true. I love the way that Apple operates, it’s good that Apple owns both the hardware and software, because they can easily update all phones with new software at the same time. Remember when Android had that malware like a month ago? It took weeks for some phones to receive and update. If they had iPhones, everyone and their grandma, would have gotten the update in one day!
I will never put my credentials in a Android device, plain and simple, i’m not being ignorant here but i am too paranoid about my money, I don’t know how Android users go to sleep thinking that there is a malware out there and there is no software update coming anytime soon!
Which translates to roughly 250 million devices already. Unreal.
Why even compare upgrading numbers to Android. That OS is famous for almost never getting system upgrades to most smartphone devices. It’s unlikely those devices can even be updated as their specs might be too poor. Besides, almost no one cares as long as their smartphones are working OK. Wall Street still thinks Android is the best mobile OS out there because the majority of humans on the planet use it. Hey, if Android users want upgrades they should just buy a new smartphone that already has it. Android smartphones are cheap enough to replace every year.