Apple has published some new adoption rate numbers for its mobile operating systems, and they reveal an interesting situation where the trajectories of iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 compared to their predecessors are practically opposite.
iOS 17 adoption is trailing iOS 16 adoption around the same time last year. The new version is already on 76% of iPhones introduced in the last four years. That’s compared to 81% for iOS 16 at a similar point in time. Sure, the difference isn’t huge but it’s there – perhaps people don’t consider iOS 17 and its subsequent point updates as important as they did iOS 16 a year ago?
Anyway, 20% of iPhones introduced in the last four years are still on iOS 16, while 4% are on earlier versions. If we’re talking all iPhones still in use, then iOS 17 has a 66% slice of the pie, iOS 16 sits at 23%, and all earlier versions have a combined 11%.
When it comes to iPadOS, the situation is reversed – iPadOS 17 is seeing more traction than its predecessor did a year ago. iPadOS 17 is currently installed on 61% of iPads introduced in the last four years, followed by iPadOS 16 with 29% and earlier versions at 10%.
Last year iPadOS 16 was only on 53% of devices introduced in the previous four years, so that’s quite a jump. If we take all iPads in use, then iOS 17 is on 53% of them, followed by iPadOS 16 with 29%, and other versions with 18%.
These numbers are obviously better than Android’s (we’re guessing, even though Google stopped publishing those), but that makes sense since Apple is one company managing not that many devices overall – whereas the Android ecosystem is much more diverse.