14 DAY TRIAL // The numbers for iOS 8 are pretty good. The new firmware for iPhone and iPad did not get too much attention from users, as iOS 7 did last year, but this is still impressive.
There are a few reasons for the slower adoption rate and the most important one is related to the big Over-the-Air update. Apple is asking iPhone and iPad users to leave about 5GB for the new update to be installed. If you have a 16GB device that's close to half of the free space on an empty iPhone so users would rather not go to iOS 8 yet.
The iTunes way
Sure enough, you do get that space back as soon as the new firmware gets installed. Also, you have the option of installing iOS 8 via iTunes. Just connect your device to your PC or Mac, open iTunes and hit the update / restore button. In a matter of minutes you will be running iOS 8.
Another reason for iOS 7 faster update rate was that Apple pushed the users into getting that. Now the Software Update is not sending any notifications. Users have the liberty of installing the new version only if they really want to.
And it appears they do want to do it. Two independent monitoring platforms have released the iOS 8 adoption numbers. Mixpanel says at the time of this article over 32% of users have taken the step. Appsee has counted over 36 percent of devices that are running iOS 8. According to the same source, about 54% are still on iOS 7.1.
Android is way slower
These numbers seem small, but you have to consider that Android Kit Kat took over 9 months to reach 40% of the user base. Mixpanel's CEO Suhail Doshi explained that the adoption rate is incredibly fast by comparison. Also, the adoption rate will grow as soon as new users are going to get the iPhone 6. He believes that users don't bother installing iOS 8 on their phones until the new devices arrive.
Apple has sold more than 10 million devices in the first weekend since iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus release. The number of new devices is continually growing and if we count the fact that Apple will release it in China and other places around the world in the next month, we're looking at an adoption rate of more than 60 percent in less than two months.
iOS 8 does not bring any major visual changes over its predecessor, but it has new features that make it interesting to Mac users, especially after OS X Yosemite comes out in about a month.