A majority of iOS device owners have upgraded to Apple’s recently released mobile operating system, iOS 9, according to a new third-party report which pegs iOS 9 adoption at 55 percent. That’s a slight climb from the 50 percent adoption rate Apple officially announced last month, less than a week after the software had been released, and the 12 percent adoption rate seen within the first 24 hours. The rapid upgrades from the user base had already seen iOS 9 claiming the fastest adoption rate in Apple’s history.
However, the new report indicates that adoption is slowing down and says early bugs could be to blame.
According to analytics and marketing firm Localytics, 47 percent of users upgraded to the new OS in the first two weeks, but only 8 percent moved to iOS 9 in weeks three and four. The early spike was likely due to the number of enthusiasts and fans of the Apple brand who are quick to upgrade when new software comes out. Others, however, tend to wait for the bugs to be fixed before they take the plunge.
iOS 9 has had more than a few early bugs, some more serious than others, causing things like locked screens, crashes, cellular access issues, and more. Apple subsequently rolled out two minor releases, iOS 9.0.1 and iOS 9.0.2, to address some of these problems, and now 69 percent of iOS 9 users have upgraded to a more stable version.
Currently, 31 percent of iOS 9 users are running 9.0, 32 percent are on 9.0.1 and another 37 percent are on 9.0.2. Some users don’t bother upgrading until the next major release comes out, notes the report. But that may be just around the corner as iOS 9.1 is now in its fifth beta with developers.
The firm also took a look at iOS 9 adoption by region, and found that European countries were adopting the quickest with Germany, Turkey and Italy leading the way at 64 percent, 63 percent, and 60 percent adoption, respectively. The U.S., meanwhile, is in 6th place, behind Mexico and Brazil at 57 percent adoption.
China, however, is lagging, despite the country’s significance to Apple not only as a device market, but also in terms of App Store revenue. Only 36 percent of Chinese iOS owners have upgraded so far. iOS 9 has other struggles in that country as well, it should be noted. For example, the newly released Apple “News” application, which ships with the upgraded operating system, has yet to launch in China. It’s not clear if or when it will, due to the issues surrounding government censorship.
Localytics’ data was generated by analyzing all the devices eligible for an upgrade, but excluding those where the new OS is already installed a new device, like the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, for example. In other words, it’s not a picture of how much traction iOS 9 has in general, compared with other OS versions, but instead how quickly users on older version of iOS chose to upgrade when iOS 9 became available. Localytics’ platform currently runs across more than 2.7 billion devices and 37,000 mobile and web apps, to give you a sense of its footprint.
For comparison’s sake, Android Lollipop, the most recent version of Google’s mobile operating system behind the just-announced Marshmallow (which isn’t yet being tracked) is installed on roughly a quarter of Android devices. That software first became available for download last November.