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iOS 8 adoption currently far behind iOS 7 release

The iPhone 6 has been Apple’s fastest-selling smartphone to date, selling over 10 million units in three days, a number which will have doubled soon. Apple’s aim is to sell 70-80 million by the end of the year.

Rate of uptake

However, as fast as users are adopting these new devices, including the iPhone 6 Plus ‘phablet’ that come fully-loaded with it, far fewer users of the older devices are picking up iOS 8 than was previously anticipated. iOS 7 saw a whopping 63% adoption rate in the first two weeks after launch. 8 is currently sitting on 44.9% (as of October 6), while iOS 7 still retains top spot at 50.51% (result according to mixpanel.com). The App Store, however, claims that on September 21, the uptake was as high as 46%.

7 & 8 are almost neck and neck as of late September

7 & 8 are almost neck and neck as of late September

Of course these stats aren’t exact, and vary even across trusted sources. Though what they agree on is that iOS 8 is nowhere near as popular as iOS 7 was, and still has some catching up to do.

The cause

Perhaps it’s to do with 8’s visual similarity to 7, which overhauled the look of iOS. 8 has a number of great innovations and changes, but it appears to be an iteration on iOS 7 in terms of looks, so fewer people are going out of their way to get their hands on it.

Maybe it is to do with early problems reported with iOS 8 which have discouraged users from upgrading. 8.0.2 is far more stable, but it may take a while for many users to update to this current version. The update does require 5.7GB of free space, which caused a great deal of complaint from users at launch, who often had to use iTunes to get around the problem.

Either way, the uptake of iOS 8 is still fast. Really fast. It’s just not quite as popular as the design earthquake that was 7. It’s likely we’ll see its user base continue to grow steadily, and surge when the iPhone 6 ships to China and India later this month.