After a longer wait than usual, Apple today finally released the first official numbers for iOS 11. The various figures and estimates released by marketing and research firms are no longer relevant, as we now know for certain that iOS 11 has passed the 50 percent mark in less than two months. In other words, the latest version of the company’s mobile operating system is now on one in every two of its mobile devices.
iOS 11 was released on September 13, meaning it took less than seven weeks to reach the majority of users that Apple tracks. While this is certainly impressive, keep in mind that iOS 10 took less than a month and iOS 9 took less than a week to hit the same adoption milestone. Sure, the number of iOS devices is growing, but Apple also cuts down the number allowed to get the latest updates.
The official numbers come from the usage of the company’s App Store, presented on the support page for developers. Apple updates the page every month to help app and game makers gauge which features they can leverage to how many users. Apple skipped releasing data for October 2017. Presumably, the company didn’t want to reveal that iOS 11 adoption was slower than previous releases:
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As you can see, iOS 11 has grabbed a 52 percent share of Apple devices using the App Store. Meanwhile, iOS 9 has fallen to 38 percent, while earlier versions account for just 10 percent.
When iOS 9 passed the 50 percent mark, Apple declared it the “fastest iOS adoption ever.” It would appear that version will retain its crown, as neither iOS 10 nor iOS 11 have kept up.
The speed at which iOS users upgrade to the latest and greatest version remains, nonetheless, impressive. Other companies dream of hitting 50 percent in a year. iOS users get new features and security improvements quickly, while developers are more likely to use functionality made available in the latest release. This in turn only encourages more users to upgrade as they seek new apps and improvements in existing apps.
