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Apple’s newest mobile operating system is proving to be a particularly popular version. Today, the iPad maker published data pertaining to the overall adoption rate of iOS 7 on its mobile devices over a seven-day period ending Mar. 24. It appears that 85 percent of all iPad and iPhone users are running iOS 7. In comparison, Google’s adoption rate, which was last updated on Mar. 3, shows that only 2.5 percent of Android users are running the most current operating system.
Apple’s App Store Distribution developer support page shows 85 percent of all devices running iOS 7, while 12 percent are still holding out with iOS 6. Approximately three percent of iPhone or iPad users are using iOS 5 or older. The operating system has steadily grown by five percent since January of this year.
Current app activity shows that many developers have updated their products to require iOS 7 in order to run. The main reason is that a lot of apps now support background refresh, which is only available on iOS 7 or higher. With 85 percent of Apple’s mobile population running on this version, there are not very many users being left behind.
As noted above, Android users are experiencing a fractured operating system with 65 percent using devices that support some version of Jelly Bean, which first launched in July of 2012. To put it in perspective, iPhone and iPad users were on version 5.0.2 of iOS in July of 2012. Only three percent of users currently run iOS 5 or older on their device right now.
That being said, it is only fair to point out that Android does dominated the global mobile market. Mobile tech analyst firm dotMobi [via: TheNextWeb] recently released a report showing that Android-based devices lead in 67 countries, while Apple dominates about 34 countries. dotMobi notes that because of the high cost of their products, Apple is more dominate in Western markets, while Android devices range in price, including low costs products, so has a greater distribution worldwide.
Last December, Apple published data showing that iOS 7 had reached 78 percent adoption. In less than three months, the company has managed to increase its coverage by seven percent. Again, by contrast, Jelly Bean was running on 54 percent of all Android devices during the same time period. Android wins for adoption rate, but loses for embracing of their most current operating system.
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