According to David Smith, an independent iOS and Mac developer responsible for hit apps such as Audiobooks and InstaBackup, it’s taken less than 24 hours for Apple’s iOS 5.1.1 update to be installed on over 10 percent of iOS devices.
The following chart was created by Smith to show the adoption rate of the new update since its release yesterday. The data was captured by Smith’s free Audiobooks app, which sees some 100,000 downloads every week:
The data also shows us that iOS 5.1 is powering around 60 percent of all iOS devices, and that more that 80 percent of iOS devices are running iOS 5.0.1 or higher. iOS 5.0.1 was first released in November 2011.
Compare the adoption rate for iOS 5.1.1 to that of the latest version of Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich.’ According to the Google Developer portal, Android versions 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 – which were released December 2011 and March 2012 respectively – have, as of May 1 2012, a market share of only 4.4 percent.
In a matter of a few hours, iOS 5.1.1 has managed to capture more than double the market share of Android 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 combined.
The most popular version of Android continues to be version 2.3 ‘Gingerbread,’ powering 64.4 percent of all Android hardware. This version was first released January 2010, and the last update was released November 2011. This version continues to be offered on new smartphones and tablets sold today.
Adoption of Android is being held back by a number of factors. One of these is that the network carriers have little or no incentive to get platform updates out to users. Apple, on the other hand, has no such problem, having cut the carriers out of the update equation. It’s clear which solution is best when it comes to getting the updates to users as quickly as possible, and getting them to install those updates onto their hardware.
This is not the first time we’ve seen iOS updates significantly outpace Android adoption rates. Back in March, data collected by Smith showed that it took iOS 5.1 only 15 days to reach the same market share level as Android 2.3.
If Google wants to get updates out to Android users as fast as possible, then it needs to follow Apple’s model and cut the carriers out of the update equation.
Image sources: David Smith, Android Developer Portal.
Related:
Best Android-powered smartphones
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.
0 comments:
Post a Comment