With Apple set to unveil the eagerly-anticipated iPhone 6 later today, that can only mean one thing: that the public launch of iOS 8 isn’t far away. And chances are that OS X Yosemite’s not too far behind it, either.
As both of Apple’s operating systems are set for a refresh, Chitika Insights has run the numbers to examine iOS and OS X version distributions at this exciting juncture for Apple: sampling tens of millions of U.S. and Canadian online ad impressions running through the Chitika Ad Network.
The numbers, catalogued between August 25 and 31, show that a massive 90 percent of North American iOS Web traffic comes from devices running iOS 7, largely thanks to Apple’s update strategy of directly prompting eligible users to upgrade.
Of the users sampled, more than 65.4 percent of iPhone Web traffic is generated using iPhone 5 family products, including the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s. Users of older iPhone models make up the remaining 34.6 percent.
OS X is a slightly different matter, since as Chitika points out “there is a larger legacy base of Mac desktops and laptops, many of which may not necessarily be upgrade eligible to some more recent OS X versions.”
Even with that being the case, however, a majority of OS X Web usage (52 percent) comes from users running the latest publicly available OS X version, OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
While Apple hasn’t yet announced when the public version of iOS will launch, it is likely to be sometime next week, while history would suggest that the OS X refresh will come later this fall.
“Apple’s precise announcements on September 9 will crystalize any shift in the company’s mobile and OS strategy, and as the largest company in the space, likely prove to have a tremendous impact on the entire industry and its direction,” Chitika analysts note.
Source: Chitika Insights
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
5 responses to “90 percent of users are running iOS 7 ahead of iPhone 6 launch”
I am sure this is not by choice. I was force to update because Apple cripple most their system if you didn’t upgrade. Even the apps which don’t require much to run were made to run on the newer iOS to make people upgrade their system. Please don’t get me started on how slow is iOS 7 is running on a iphone 4!
No offense, but your phone is 5 years old, what do really expect to get out of it at this point? I believe they’re finally going to stop supporting the 4 in updates this year, cause it just can’t handle much.
This is only because most of them upgraded by accident or received a phone with it and can’t downgrade.
yeah removing key features from older ios versions will always help boost adoption rates
I’d be holding on to my jailbroken iOS7 for plenty longer (until the iOS8 jb release) if I could downgrade to iOS 7 from a new iPhone 6, or whatever they’ll be calling it.