Although unofficial iOS 12 installation rate numbers have circulated since shortly after the public launch on September 17, Apple today provided its first official statistics: 23 days after release, iOS 12 was installed on 50 percent of all devices, versus 53 percent of devices introduced in the past four years. That’s not the fastest uptake in iOS history, but once again it’s well ahead of typical Android adoption.
Apple’s figures were based on App Store measurements taken on October 10, 2018, and now have been broken into two separate pie charts:
- iOS 12 is on 53 percent of devices released since September 2014, with iOS 11 on 40 percent and earlier iOSes on 7 percent. (The iPhone 6 was released in September 2014, with the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 following in October; the sixth-generation iPod touch dates to July 2015.)
- iOS 12 is on 50 percent of all iOS devices using the App Store, with iOS 11 on 39 percent and earlier iOSes on 11 percent.
The differentiation clearly suggests that uptake of Apple’s latest OS has been faster for more recent devices, while hinting that developers shouldn’t feel held back by lagging upgrades to older hardware. Notably, however, iOS 12 was targeted somewhat — though not exclusively — at improving performance on older devices, providing most users with a reason to upgrade if their hardware could do so. iOS 12 runs on all iPhones since the iPhone 5s, as well as all iPads since the iPad Air 1 and mini 3, plus the sixth-generation iPod touch.
Whether adoption of recent iOS releases is impressive or sluggish depends on your perspective. Given the huge size of Apple’s iOS userbase, getting at least half of that audience to switch to the latest release in less than a month is a pretty major accomplishment, and the envy of rivals like Google and Microsoft. That said, iOS 10 hit a 54 percent installed base after a month, and iOS 11 was at 52 percent after a month and a half, so iOS 12 looks to be doing a little better while remaining in the same general ballpark.
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iOS 11 peaked at the 85 percent installation mark two weeks before iOS 12 was released. By contrast, Android Oreo at that point was at under 15 percent of the Android userbase. As of Google’s last report on September 28, only 19.2 percent of Android users were on Oreo, with no number listed for the latest release of Pie, as any version representing less than 0.1 percent of the total Android installed base wasn’t shown.
