Apple has announced that iOS 8 is now installed on 87% percent of devices. The new data comes ahead of the release of iOS 9 later today.
The company has often made note of its adoption rates, comparing them to their competitors, most notably with Android Lollipop, which currently is in use on 21% of devices. But of course, Android is deployed very differently to iOS, with carriers choosing when to distribute updates, but also due to the fact that many Android devices are cheaper, less powerful handsets, and do not support the latest releases.
As we’ve noted before, iOS 7 had a much faster adoption rate, reaching milestones much quicker than iOS 8. This could, however, be attributed to the new design of iOS 7, something which came with a lot of anticipation and with users eager to install it on their devices.
iOS 9 will be released at around 10 am P.S.T today, if previous releases are anything to go by. The new version will be supported on all iOS devices as far back as the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 from 2011, and is said to include improvements to the overall efficiency on such older devices.
Alongside iOS 9, Apple will also release a new version of its ‘watchOS’ later today. That update is said to be quite a substantial one, and will allow the use of truly native apps on the smartwatch, hopefully providing faster loading times and apps that are able to make use of the variety of sensors included with the device.