According to Apple’s own App Store Distribution support page, 68% of iOS devices are now running iOS 8. This adoption rate has jumped by 4 percentage points since it was last updated on December 22nd. In the meantime, and not surprisingly, iOS 7 adoption rate has decreased by 3 percentage point, only representing 29% of the install base, while earlier iOS versions are still at 4%.
The latest numbers, which represent data pulled from the App Store on January 5, 2015, show that iOS 8 has now reached an adoption level of 68 percent. That means that for devices connecting to the App Store, that 29% of them are running iOS 7, while only four percent are running earlier variants of iOS.
These numbers are almost corroborated by analytics firm Mixpanel, which pegs iOS 8 adoption at 69.93% of devices, with iOS 7 trailing behind at 27.86% and earlier software versions representing 2.21%. This is a small discrepancy that can probably be explained by the fact that Mixpanel’s stats are almost in real time, while Apple’s own stats are already a day behind.
This nice little jump in iOS 8 adoption rate over the last month is probably due to this holiday season that just ended. Expected to be yet another record quarter for Apple, this holiday season most likely saw many users being gifted a new iOS device, probably leaving behind their older ones, thus the stark increase in iOS 8 adoption.
