iOS 8 adoption rate jumps to 68% of iOS devices

iOS 8 adoption rate january 5 2015

According to Apple’s own App Store Distribution support page, 68% of iOS devices are now running iOS 8. This adoption rate has jumped by 4 percentage points since it was last updated on December 22nd. In the meantime, and not surprisingly, iOS 7 adoption rate has decreased by 3 percentage point, only representing 29% of the install base, while earlier iOS versions are still at 4%.

Those doing the math at home will be quick to notice that the numbers don’t add up. Indeed, if you add up the numbers showed above, they amount to 101%, an error most likely due to an awkward round up of numbers. Still, we get the big picture.

These numbers are almost corroborated by analytics firm Mixpanel, which pegs iOS 8 adoption at 69.93% of devices, with iOS 7 trailing behind at 27.86% and earlier software versions representing 2.21%. This is a small discrepancy that can probably be explained by the fact that Mixpanel’s stats are almost in real time, while Apple’s own stats are already a day behind.

OS 8 adoption Mixplanels january 6 2015

This nice little jump in iOS 8 adoption rate over the last month is probably due to this holiday season that just ended. Expected to be yet another record quarter for Apple, this holiday season most likely saw many users being gifted a new iOS device, probably leaving behind their older ones, thus the stark increase in iOS 8 adoption.

By comparison, at the same time last year, iOS 7 was installed on 78% of devices, a pretty big difference which has been an ongoing issue since the release of iOS 8. The fact that iOS 8 needs about 2GB of free storage on devices in order to be downloaded and installed probably still contributes to the slower adoption rate. But if you’re one of these persons who like to look at the glass half full, these numbers are still exceptional when it comes to adoption rate for a mobile device.