Many of the stats we have about iOS marketshare and demographics come from third-party companies, most of whom are tracking ad impressions within their network. As such, their stats have the potential of being inaccurate, and need to be taken with at least a little bit of salt.
Looks like online ad network Chitika can be trusted though. Earlier this week, we reported that Chitika was now tracking 74.1% of all devices as running iOS 7. Now, Apple is backing those numbers up, and it makes Google look pathetic.
According to a new update on Apple’s developer website, iOS 7 is now running on 74% of all iOS devices… a remarkably quick upgrade rate for an operating system that is less than three months old.
The runner-up, of course, is iOS 6, which is running on a distant 22% of all iOS devices. That makes sense, as while everything from the iPhone 4 on can run iOS 7, iOS 6 was the last version of iOS to support devices released before Apple’s A4 processor debuted in the iPhone 4, as well as the first-generation iPad.
Again, this is official data, coming directly from Apple, so it can definitely be trusted. It’s amazing how closely it tracks to Chitika’s numbers, which show that a full 96% of all iOS devices in the wild are running an operating system released by Apple within the last fifteen months.
Is there really even a point in comparing these numbers to Android? No, but I will anyway: compared to iOS 7’s 94% adoption rate, the latest version of Android, KitKat, is currently running on a pathetic 1.1% of devices.
Source: Apple