Update: Apple has come out and revealed that 54% of its active device are running iOS 10.
Original story:
The one area where iOS clearly beats Android is in the adoption of new OS versions by its users. The platform has always had higher adoption numbers within the first few weeks and months compared to Android.
A few weeks ago, Apple released iOS 10 which is now installed in 66.7% of devices according to Fiksu. This is quite impressive since the platform has been around for about a month. Getting to 66% in about a month is the fastest adoption of any iOS version in history.
The data collected by Fiksu tracks any iPhones and iPads being used on the web and thus measures the active iOS install base. When iOS 10 was released on September 13, its adoption within the first two weeks wasn’t that high but this changed on the third week. It is not clear what caused this change but probably it is because if the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus units being shipped during that time.
iOS 10 Adoption
With 66.7% installs, iOS 10 is used on the majority of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices compared to iOS 9. Before the release of iOS 10, iOS 9 was installed in 88% of the active devices on the market. This has clearly shifted with the release of the new iPhones and as users upgrade their older devices. iOS 10 can be installed on the iPhone 5 and older devices.
Apple has been aggressively pushing users to update their existing devices and this is something that can’t be achieved easily on Android. This is probably why Android Marshmallow which was released over a year ago is still installed in less than 30% of the devices. Apple controls everything when it comes to iOS and that is why it can get as many people to download the latest updates within a short period of time. Android on the other hand has different players who tend to customize the OS and this is what takes time before most devices are updated.
With iOS 10 out, the next version that Apple will be pushing out is iOS 10.1. This version is currently in beta mode and is available to developers and public beta testers. It will be released to the public before the end of 2016.
