iOS 12 admittedly isn’t chock full of dazzling new features, but that, of course, is by design. Due to a number of high-profile usability issues and bugs involving iOS 11, Apple with iOS 12 opted to slow things down a bit, take a breather, and focus on overall system stability and performance above all else. In turn, the response from iOS users has been overwhelmingly positive.
To this point, iOS 12 adoption remains incredibly strong and is easily outpacing iOS 11 adoption. Earlier today, Apple updated the stats on its developer page and revealed that 78% of all iOS devices introduced in the last four years are running iOS 12. This is an increase of about 6% in just about 4 weeks, a jump that can partially be attributed to what was likely a huge wave of iPhone upgrades over the recent holiday shopping season.
In short, the vast majority of iOS users today are using Apple’s most advanced mobile OS. The same, however, can’t be said for Android. Though Google over the years has done a great job of making Android an OS that can stand toe-to-toe with iOS in many regards, it’s almost a moot point given how few Android users actually take advantage of the latest and greatest version of Android.
Even more problematic is that the bulk of Android users are still using antiquated versions of Android. Android’s developer dashboard — which hasn’t been updated since late October — last revealed that slightly more than 50% of Android devices are running Marshmallow or an earlier iteration of the OS. To put that that into context, Marshmallow was released back in 2015. Imagine, as a point of comparison, that the majority of iOS users today were using iOS 9 or something even older.
And as for Android Pie, adoption has been almost negligible thus far. As of October, Android Pie adoption was still less than 0.1%
Android aside, it’s worth pointing out that iOS 12 adoption is still outpacing iOS 11 adoption, a testament to the fact that system stability and issues like battery performance are just as important, if not more so, than eye-catching new features.
