Apple Claims iOS 9 Installed On 50% Of Devices While Android Lollipop Hovers Around 20 Percent
Apple hasn’t exactly started Monday off on a high note. Earlier today, we reported that Apple acknowledged that a rogue copy of Xcode was responsible for littering its impenetrable iOS App Store with malware-laced apps. This is a first for Apple and is just the kind of news that the company was looking to avoid as it prepares its biggest hardware launch of the year with the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.
But the company is forging ahead, and is trying to sprinkle a bit of sugar on the bitterness of GhostXcode. Apple announced that iOS 9, which was released to customers on September 16th, has been adopted faster than any other previous iOS release. “iOS 9 is also off to an amazing start, on pace to be downloaded by more users than any other software release in Apple’s history,” said Phil Schiller, Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing.
In less than a week, more than 50 percent of supported devices in the hands of the general public are now running iOS 9 — that is an impressive statistic when you think about it, but it shouldn’t be too surprising given that Apple controls every aspect of hardware and software design, allowing it to provide the update to millions of customers quickly with minimal fuss and without having go to face roadblocks from wireless carriers.
It also helps that Apple is still supporting relatively ancient hardware like the A5-powered iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Both of those devices were released way back in 2011. And Apple has made the upgrade to iOS 9 smaller in size, so those with only 16GB, or heaven forbid 8GB of storage, shouldn’t encounter as many issues this year when upgrading to the newest version of iOS.
To put things in perspective, Android 5.0 Lollipop is installed on just over 20 percent of all Android devices nearly a year after its launch.
