iOS 6 Adoption Tops 25% After Just 48 Hours 513
An anonymous reader writes "iOS 6 has seen rapid adoption among iPhone and iPad users, reports developer David Smith. Smith's applications like Audiobooks get around 100k downloads weekly and he's taken to mapping the adoption of Apple's software releases over the last couple of years. This update's data shows a 35.4% adoption of iOS 6, with iOS 5.x holding court at 71.5% adoption. That's a pretty rapid pace, eclipsing Android Jelly Bean's 2-month adoption levels of 1.2% easily."
Good luck with those new map service. (Score:1, Interesting)
It's a little un-Apple-like.
Not always smooth (Score:4, Interesting)
Customer focus (Score:5, Interesting)
Well when you're Apple and have a unique position among the handset vendors where the carrier doesn't insist on fucking with your device software and lets you treat the end user as the customer, and interact with them directly to provide support, then it's a lot easier.
When you have the mistaken perspective (easy to make in the US) that the carrier is your customer and you should cater to them, shit happens like ancient devices without updates. Not that it'd help blatantly irresponsible companies like Motorola, who repeatedly abandon handsets after a year or so, but may be they'd be more willing to do a better job (or more directly feel the effects) if they weren't protected by contracts and buffered from reality by the carriers.
Re:Good luck with those new map service. (Score:5, Interesting)
For those that haven't already seen it, there is a growing collection of iOS 6 map glitches on The Amazing IOS 6 Maps [tumblr.com]
Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)
... the really funny part is it also eclipses the over-one-year-old Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) [informationweek.com] as well.
Re:Always with the jabs (Score:5, Interesting)
According to c|net [cnet.com], as of yesterday Verizon Galaxy Nexus users could download Jelly Bean. Within 24 hours, Apple had 15% penetration across all their devices. I wonder what the percentage is of Galaxy Nexus users?
Are there any very popular Android phones that have received an update in the last year or so that had the update adopted that fast?
I don't know what the Android process is like, but I can say that the iOS process is really slick. At this point, Apple has it down to a science. The update was trivial to install, didn't take too long, and was easily configured on first boot. The 5.1 update process (which was the first delta update, so it was only ~50 MB instead of 700+) was especially fast.
Re:OP must be new here (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Comparing 2 different things... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Comparing 2 different things... (Score:1, Interesting)
Please, mod parent up...
I am an Apple user too, so you may say I'm biased. I don't give a damn. Apple products work for me.
People talk about "Apple's walled garden", but look at Android's garden! It has no walls, but it has no flowers either! It's run by OEM handset makers and phone companies, which are much greedier than Apple.
Google doesn't give a damn, because all that matters to them is advertising. So, they update the system but don't get to decide who can update. And recent versions of Android need more powerful hardware -- or so they want us to think.
So, you got a "new" Galaxy S2 last year and you can't get Jelly Bean yet -- maybe in november.
Caching Problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Apparently there is a bug in Safari for IO6 [stackoverflow.com] that causes caching of POST requests, which is causing all sorts of web developers to scramble like crazy to implement cache busting in their apps.
Thanks apple.
Re:Good luck with those new map service. (Score:5, Interesting)
The big problem for me is I mostly use the google map for its *excellent* bus and train routing. I can just drop in an address, let it pull my current location from the GPS and have it give me really great bus/train combinations. Apple has dropped this feature
Until theres an alternative I simply cant upgrade. Which is a problem for me, being a full time IOS developer and all that.
Re:Always with the jabs (Score:5, Interesting)
The Android process is OTA, same as iOS - and, unlike iOS, it has been that way since forever. Your phone will tell you that there is an update via the notification drawer. You tap the notification, it asks if you want to install it. You tap "yes", then go make some coffee, and in about 5 minutes or so your phone is updated.
You're talking about it from a theoretical point of view. My phone doesn't even have Jelly Bean available yet (SGII on Optus in Australia) - I could install it via various methods but that doesn't count as OTA. When I first put ICS on it it the install seemed to go okay, but then nothing worked properly until I did a factory reset. I don't know anyone who didn't have to do a factory reset. A few days ago it told me about another update (4.0.4) but it failed to install on the first attempt (after taking the prescribed 5 minutes to fail). After powering off then on again it re-downloaded the update, then failed to install it again. I had to install it using Keis, which took ages (seemed like 30 minutes... maybe it wasn't that long but it was way more than 5). After the update everything seems to be working though.
All the iPhone's i've ever updated (lots) have worked first time every time.
Re:Comparing 2 different things... (Score:3, Interesting)
So they update from apple and it suddenly is the carriers problem....
Uh.. yeah, let's talk about this for a sec. The iOS6 update caused my wife's phone to indicate that it was on wi-fi when it was not. She went to re-download her apps and, before long, she got a text from AT&T saying her data for the month was nearly used up and that they were going to add a $15 charge to the bill if she kept going.
So is this Apple's fault? Absolutely. So that means that AT&T is absolved of any responsibility, right? Nope. You see, I asked AT&T to put a limit on her data. I mean, face it, there's no real way to know when that phone is using cellular or wifi data. (Especially when the icon is on.... I swear Apple didn't test this update before they sent it out.) At least if the phone did malfunction or if she just went dippy and went on a data spree, I could keep the damage minimal and not even have to phone AT&T about it. I was told "Nope, we can't do that". I pointed out that when I had an iPad on their data plan, once it hit the limit it would just stop sending data and it would wait until I okayed an extra charge. She just told me no. There's no reason why a smartphone couldn't be treated the same way, this is obviously a policy decision and not for some technical reason. They couldn't even tell me how much data she had used, said that they'd know in a day or two... but for some reason, with my iPad, they can. Huh.
Apple definitely shares in some of the responsibility with the iOS problems, it really does feel like they didn't test this one nearly as well as any of their other updates. But don't you DARE pretend as though Apple or defective customers are the sole source of your problems. AT&T has the worst data plans available and their policies are intended only to help their bottom line and are NOT there, in any way, to help their customers. Seriously, it's like they hope I screw up every so often so they can tack on twenty dollars to my bill. My phone went rogue and as a 'courtesy' they decided to hold on a charge. A courtesy. They didn't want to listen to me for details about the problem. (You should be happy, I wanted to give them a heads up so you could do something about all the escalations you've gotten today. The numpty on the phone and the driftwood on the other end of the email conversation didn't care or even want to talk about it.) They didn't even want to set up the plan so that if another 'rogue phone' glitch happened again that it wouldn't cause harm for either myself or for AT&T.
Apple may say 'fuck you' to you, but how many times do you think people have shouted at them because of AT&T?
I took 40 escalations today over I)S 6...
When I first emailed about my wife's phone the response I got was: "If you're worried about using up data, just turn off ceullar data on your phone!" A few months ago when I emailed to find out what speed my unlimited plan will be throttled down to past the 3 gig mark, the guy told me to run the phone out of data then use SpeedTest to find out. You'll pardon me for not believing that all 40 of your escalations had anything at all to do with Apple shitty iOS release.
Re:Comparing 2 different things... (Score:5, Interesting)
You're missing the forest for the trees. The fact that it's newsworthy that one company has made software updates work pretty smoothly in 2012 is pretty fucking sad.
Actually it seems you're just running around with your eyes closed. Nexus users simply get a notification when an update is available and the update works in 2 clicks, one to download and one to reboot the phone after the download is finished.
The real problem is motivation. I honestly see difference between Jellybean and Gingerbread, but I don't see a benefit. All apps I have now worked just fine back with Gingerbread. The interface may be a tiny bit smoother, but other than that there's no real difference, no killer feature and critically no lack of features on the older systems.
The only benefit I can see to updating the phone is to stop the OTA updater from bringing up notifications that there's an update waiting.
Apple, say what you want about the software and the most recent fuckup is damn good at marketing it's updates. People actually WANT to install iOS6 and that is your key difference right there. I don't have an iPhone yet I know what features iOS6 brings to the table, yet on Jellybean the only thing I can honestly say is different is that there's a button to close all idle notifications, that's the only "feature" I can visibly see since I upgraded, and I'm wondering why I even bothered.
Re:Always with the jabs (Score:4, Interesting)
Are there any very popular Android phones that have received an update in the last year or so that had the update adopted that fast?
Did anybody care enough to measure or report it? Seems to me, some iFans are grasping at straws here. Android OTA updates are slick, fast and easy. Just say "yes" to the update prompt and a short time later the device reboots to an even more deco 3D light show.
It's possible Android users don't update as fast because they aren't as desparate. I don't know, I haven't seen any figures, except for these ones that seem basically irrelevant to me. Maybe if it was a security update or something that actually mattered. I don't know. It must be different being an iFan. Maybe they just need something to focus on to distract from that market share thing, which continues to slip, slip, slip away.
Re:Always with the jabs (Score:5, Interesting)
I didn't want to update my device but in the end it was the easiest way to get all of my storage space back. The process might be slick, but apple are definitely pushing you to do it.
Re:IN OTHER EARTH SHATTERINFG NEWS (Score:5, Interesting)
Now there are hippies in my trolls!
Not cool.Not cool. Vegetarian trolls can't even make dick jokes, so it's really just a waste of time.
Re:Always with the jabs (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, because comparing the release of Jelly Bean on a multitude of manufacturer, carrier, and hardware platforms is an entirely reasonable comparison to the release of an iOS locked to specific hardware, from one manufacturer.
Quoth the Joker : That's the point
Clearly a walled garden system like Apple will have quicker adoption of new software. What's somewhat surprising -and imo newsworthy- is the magnitude. In less than 2 days, iOS 6 has reached over 1/3 of potential clients. Going back a version, iOS 5 (or better) has a saturation level well over 95% in the year since release. That's incredible, compared to Android OS devices, over 75% of which are running 2.x variants, released in late 2010.
The fact that is happened : Not surprising.
The level to which it happened : Moderately surprising
Data : Useful
Re:Comparing 2 different things... (Score:4, Interesting)
So hopefully I've made my point that the people who are of the mindset that they buy a device and it last six years are not who computer companies are targeting anymore, at least the mainstream ones. They want to sell a new device every two years to you, and that's why this update crap is a load of non-issue.
I get this mindset, I really do, even though I disagree with it. My IT purchasing habits back up my stance on the matter: I regularly replace my phone, laptop, and PC, usually every 2.5 to 3 years.
Until recently, I haven't been quite able to put my finger on what's wrong with this persistently popular opinion that this regular upgrade cycle is "crap", and somehow a "trick" pulled by the vendors. From a naive ordinary financial perspective it seems... correct. After all, we buy cars that are expected to last two decades, appliances for up to three decades, and even electronics like TVs and HiFi systems usually last at least a decade.
Computers are different, and it's all to do with the pace of Moore's law: Essentially, paying a premium for something to last 6 years or longer is not as efficient for everybody -- vendors and consumers alike -- as buying something cheaper/disposable more often. If it wasn't for the exponential increase of computer power, this wouldn't be the case! In that case it would make sense to buy more expensive computers with longer support and better physical build quality.
For example, I laugh at companies that "invest" in "big iron" that will "last them a decade". Sure, it will, but by the end of that decade it will be 3% as powerful as the "cutting edge" mainframe, because of Moore's law. Had the same company spent half as much every 5 years instead, at the end of the decade they'd have a computer that is 18% as powerful as the bleeding edge. Spending a third as much every 3 years or so would let them stay within 35% of the best possible performance at all times. Even if you assume that spending a third also cuts the performance down to a third, the result is still about 12% of the best available, which is lot better than 3%!
Sure, I'm simplifying an awful lot, but you get the idea: there's an ideal interval to spending, and it's about 3 years. A lot of us IT geeks just "get this" intuitively, but we can't quite put the "why" of it into words without sitting down and doing the numbers.
By the way, this is one major reason why server virtualization (e.g.: VMware ESXi) is so popular: It allows corporations to make the migration process to the "next generation" trivial and virtually risk free. A smooth, regular upgrade cycle of server hardware is so much more efficient than buying "big iron" for a decade it isn't even funny.
Phones are much the same, unless you use them literally only for making voice calls. If you use them for more general purpose tasks, then the same argument applies. Newer phones do more, do it better, and do it all faster, and this pace of improvement is exponential. Sticking to a 6 year or slower upgrade cycle means that you spend the majority of the time near the single-digit percentage level of the best available performance. Why would you pay premium for having less most of the time?