iOS 8 was released just 24 hours ago in what Apple is calling the biggest iOS release ever, but if early adoption numbers are any indication, customers might not feel the same way.
Users are upgrading to iOS 8 at a much slower rate than iOS 7, according to Tapjoy’s data from its app network of 200 million unique iOS users. Not only is iOS 8 lagging behind iOS 7, it’s being adopted even slower than iOS 6 was.
Adoption rates might pick up tomorrow once the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus hit stores, but iOS 8 has only been installed by about 6 percent of users 18 hours into its release. iOS 7 hit 12 percent in that same time period last year.
One surprising discovery from Tapjoy’s data is that iPod touches are actually being updated faster than iPhones (7.65 percent versus 6.60 percent), while the iPad has been updated to iOS 8 by less than 4 percent of users.
Apple fans can also track iOS 8’s adoption in real time with Fiksu’s livetracker, which currently shows iOS 8 at 9.48 percent. AppSee’s tracker and MixPanel are a bit more optimistic, showing around 15 percent adoption.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
34 responses to “iOS 8 early adoption is significantly slower than iOS 7 and even iOS 6”
To be far, some of the coolest features, handoff/icloud drive, are not available or usable until Yosemite is released.
Loving handoff so far. Been using since 10.10 Developer 1
You’re right, of course. That said, what a ‘trip’ …today a call came in from my wife and it rang the iPad Mini2, and Air while simultaneously ringing the phone. Talk about WTF? I thought I’d done something wrong, but very cool answering calls on the iPad;)
I know right? They should have been released together. Personally I’m far more excited for Yosemite!
Not to mention that this is not as drastic of an update as iOS7 was to iOS6. Plus there were a lot of people who felt that iOS7 slowed their phones down (namely iPhone 4 and 4s), so people are probably following all of the warning articles online saying “wait until iOS8 gets its first update”
It is an awesome update. Better than 6 to 7.
Usability is up. Even though I still really hate the flat design.
“iOS 8 early adoption is significantly slower than iOS 7 and even iOS 6”
Oh man. You think you could give it, say, even a day or two—maybe even a few weeks—before compiling and printing meaningless BS stats like this? Besides, who CARES about the percentage of early adoption?
Also I think it is due to the large free space requirement on the phone. If you have a 16 GB stuffed to the gills, you will need to do it with an iTunes backup not on the air. That will slow adoption down.
But I agree with you, who cares? Wait for a few weeks before you make the assessment
You hit the nail on the head. It takes 4.8gb of free space to update. Who has an iPhone with that much free space. I have the 32gb 5s and I had to used iTunes.
I have a 64GB. I had 3 GB free. Had to jettison a couple of apps that I was not using.
Ummm… digitaldumdum….it does say hours since release on the graph there…
Perhaps its because everyone I know had their connection drop half way through their download all day.
Its not as far along as iOS 7 because the downloading process was crap. I had to delete every picture, song, text message, and app and it still said I didn’t have enough room. I had the iOS 8 beta so when I connected to iTunes it said I didn’t have any updates. I finally had to download an ispw and restore it on to my phone. Even my wife’s iPad and iPhone (both on iOS 7) had issues. At the last minute of the upgrade it gave me an error saying they couldn’t be updated. Everything is finally upgraded, but it took me over 7 hours and not many people are going to sit there for that.
No update issues here. All 64GB and 32GB devices
that’s only because you were running the beta, took me 10 minutes to update this morning
The graph doesn’t make too much sense to me. I find it hard to believe that 10 hours into the iOS7 and iOS8 availability that so many people uninstalled it to the point where the overall adoption rate dropped. That’s saying that more people uninstalled back to their former OS than new users updated to the current OS. Unlikely and unbelievable.
I have actually been told by work not to download iOS 8 as not all of our applications are compatible yet – with GOOD apparently one of the big holdouts. This is the first time early adoption has been an issue. Not sure what’s so different about iOS8 vs 7 but clearly there are more changes under the hood.
I have a lot of friends who haven’t installed it yet because of the amount of space the need to have free to install. It’s actually ridiculous…
Really? The fricking servers were so overloaded it took me 7 or 8 hours to download and install iOS8, but totally worth it. :)
Take a look at Brazil. Much more downloads than China. So why Apple don’t give us a special attention?
This update needs 5.8GB free space and that may be one reason for low adaptation. I have to delete many apps from my iPad to get the update. Not tried on my iPhone.
Because sales of the iPhone 6 are so high! Doesn’t take a genius to work out people are just waiting to get their new phone. I know i am not downloading it early i will update my iPad tomorrow when i get my iPhone 6.
My iPhone 6 is arriving on Friday with iOS 8 installed. I’m not going to bother updating the phone being replaced.
Since you can no longer upgrade your iPhone 4 and that it is better not to upgrade the iPhone 4S (way to slow…), i think that’s the main reason for this slow adoption… Why not make a ‘slimmed down’ version of iOS8 for iPhone4 ?
This report pegs iOS 8 at 16.83% https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/ios_8/from_date:-1,report_unit:hour,to_date:0
Would’ve updated but it took 4gb to do ota update on my 16gb ipad/iphone. that’s a quarter of the space.
Busy servers slowed me down ..
It’s the first few days. It takes time. They probably also heard there’s major bugs and aren’t downloading it just yet. When it becomes more stable and all the major features are activated including Yosemite, it’ll certainly go faster.
OMG!!!
OMG!!!
it must be a complete failure!!!
I am so glad i went to bed last night instead of installing IOS 8
Now after this article, I may never install it
WHEW!!
Thanks Mac Cult!!
Right data, wrong conclusion. iOS 7 adoption was much higher than iOS 6 and 8, probably because of the visual redesign.
Interesting choice to show Korea as a unified country, yet to call it out as South Korea. Let’s just say Korea! :)
It’s because I’m still trying to download iOS 8 from Apple’s servers after a day and half …
Just updated my iPad from a full download and set up as a new device. Not fully usable without Yosemite. It’s buggy (gestures freeze, apps crash, touch causes unpredictable and crazy screen reaction), many apps not yet updated…need more reasons? First time I updated to an x.0 version. Will wait for 8.0.1 to update other devices.
I want to know why South Korea’s update rate is so high. Is it just a phone culture or did IOS 8 have some critical feature that’s useful there?
How about the fact that over Verizon FiOS, you can’t download it at all. Various searches have found numerous people around the US having the same problem with those lovely people. Guess I’ll wait until I upgrade my phone because the update has crapped out 3 times and always downloads at 33 kb/sec. Hows that for 65mbps advertised speed? Of course, Verizon blames Apple. :)