What does my performance in the gym have in common with iOS 9 adoption? Apparently the fact that both start strong, get a bit overconfident, and then run out of steam far too quickly.
That’s according to Apple’s latest developer figures, at least, which show that roughly 67 percent of eligible iOS users are currently upgraded to the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system.
While those are certainly not bad figures (and would have Android developers weeping with envy), it’s definitely disappointing given that it’s a lowly 1 percent increase in the past two weeks — representing a significant slowdown from the roughly 1 percent increase every 2.5 days that iOS 9 adoption was seeing just a couple of weeks back.
This slowdown isn’t entirely unexpected, however. Apple tends to see the same broad adoption patterns repeat year after year — with adoption rates eventually winding up in the high 80-something percent range. All that varies substantially is the speed at which this takes place. Currently iOS 9 is dominating last year’s iOS 8 on uptake, although it may end up slowing down quicker.
Yesterday, Apple seeded iOS 9.2 beta 3 to developers and public testers, adding fixes to the dictionary, keyboards, and networking.
Given that Apple devices are likely to do big sales on Black Friday and over the holiday season, I expect to see another surge in iOS 9 adoption soon.
Source: Apple
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.
8 responses to “iOS 9 adoption runs out of steam after a starting sprint”
seriously?
“Apple tends to see the same broad adoption patterns repeat year after year…”
So how is that worth writing an article about?
Apple also releases an iPhone each year.
True- Apple releases a new iPhone ever year (which seems to sell better than the model before)… So what exactly was your point again?
As your gym performance seems to follow every IOS rate of adoption, why the special article about IOS 9?
Just curious.
Well, developers may be interested in the uptake of iOS. My point was also that — while the adoption figures tend to work out the same year after year — the speed at which they get there varies. iOS 9 is currently beating where iOS 8 was last year, but the fact that it saw a faster uptake at the start could explain why it’s also dropping off quicker than iOS 8 did. Ultimately, I can’t explain why everyone would be interesting in adoption rates. I’m just reporting them and trying to add some broader context, so as to avoid suggesting that this is it for iOS 9 and that it won’t fare as well as predecessors.
Fair enough… and sorry if i sounded like i was trolling!
One of these days; I’m going to drag myself down to the gym. lol
Ha! No worries at all. Thanks for reading.
As the next part says “All that varies substantially is the speed at which this takes place”. The news is: we’ve reached the plateau now.
iOS 9 has been out for what 2 months and its at 67%. We haven’t had the holidays yet which is a prime time for buying iPhone, iPads etc. which means that those numbers could change a lot as old devices are swapped for new ones.