Following release of iOS 8.1, Apple says iOS 8 is now installed on over half of devices
The eighth major release of Apple’s mobile operating system is now running on over half of iOS devices.
That’s according to new data measured by the App Store yesterday and just published by Apple on its developer portal, which indicates that iOS 8 is now installed on 52 percent of iOS devices. The previous major iOS release, iOS 7, accounts for 43 percent of the installed base, while earlier iOS versions make up 5 percent.
Apple released iOS 8 nearly six weeks ago, on Sept. 17.
A week after its release and just days after the launch of the iOS 8-powered iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8 was reported to have been running on 46 percent of devices. Two weeks later, its adoption went up a mere one percent.
Now, three weeks later, iOS 8 has seen a considerable increase in adoption, having been installed in an additional 5 percent of devices.
The increase may be largely attributed to the release of iOS 8.1 last week, which introduced major new features including Apple Pay, Continuity, iCloud Photo Library, and the restoration of the Camera Roll.
The software’s patently slow initial adoption is chalked up to a number of factors. One of these is the fact that iOS 8 requires between 4GB and 6GB of available storage space to be installed over the air, thereby forcing users to delete content from their devices. Another is the ill-fated iOS 8.0.1 release, which Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS product marketing, has just apologized for.