iOS 8 adoption slows down dramatically

iOS 8
iOS 8 is here, but apparently not everyone wants it

You'd be forgiven for thinking that almost every compatible device would be running iOS 8 by now, yet that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

The latest figures on Apple's developer site show that 47% of users are now on iOS 8, while 47% are still on iOS 7 and 6% are on earlier versions of iOS. Just 47% on iOS 8 doesn't sound great to begin with, but when you compare that with the numbers from two weeks ago on September 21 you'll see just how much the adoption has slowed down, as back then 46% of users were on iOS 8.

So in two weeks only an additional 1% of users have made the upgrade. It's not surprising that things would slow down after the initial flurry of updates, but for it to settle down with still less than 50% of users on the latest version is surprising.

iOS 8 hate

So why has adoption slowed down so much? The well-publicised problems with iOS 8 probably didn't help, though they've mostly been fixed now. Some devices also can't run iOS 8, but everything from the iPhone 4S / iPad 2 onwards can, so that's unlikely to be a major factor.

Despite the slow adoption rate it's still way ahead of Android in that sense. Google's latest figures show that only 24.5% of users are on Android 4.4 KitKat, with the majority still on Jelly Bean and 11.4% back on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

That at least is easier to understand though, as many manufacturers haven't bothered to update their phones to support recent Android releases, an issue which is less of a factor for iOS users.

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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