82 percent: iPhone users are busy updating to iOS 18

A few days before the start of its WWDC developer conference, Apple announced figures on the extent to which users have installed the versions of iOS and iPadOS presented last year. According to the figures, iOS 18 runs on 82 percent of all iPhones and 88 percent of models from the last four years. iPadOS 18 is installed on 71 percent of all iPads and 81 percent of devices from the last four years. The figures are collected in the course of App Store usage.

A comparison with the previous year is difficult: Apple had already collected the figures for iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 on February 4, 2024, exactly four months before the current cut-off date of June 4, 2025. At that time, iOS 17 was installed on 66% of all devices and 76% of all devices in the past four years. 53% of users of all devices and 61% on devices from the last four years had updated to iPadOS 17.

Different measurement times

The later timing of the current survey is likely to have made a major contribution to the higher installation figures. Experience shows that many users are hesitant when it comes to new major versions and wait for the first major bug fixes and the reactions of other users. Interim device purchases on which the latest operating system is installed also contribute to the higher adoption rates.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told an analyst call at the end of October 2024 that iOS 18.1 had already been installed significantly more frequently than iOS 17.1 in the previous year. Some media interpreted his reference to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max supporting Apple Intelligence to mean that Apple's AI could have been the deciding factor. However, this would not explain why the number of installations on all devices is so significantly higher, as the Intelligence only works from the 15 Pro and the 16-generation devices onwards.

With iOS 18, Apple has also enabled a higher degree of personalization of the iPhone through freely placeable icons and widgets on the home screen and color adjustments. This could also have contributed to greater interest.

App developers should be pleased

Those who have not yet switched to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 had at least the previous year's version installed in many cases: 9% of all devices on the iPhone and 14% of all devices on the iPad. The relatively high proportion of 15 percent who were still using earlier versions on the iPad can be explained on the one hand by update fatigue. This is because iPadOS 18 could be installed on the 7 percent of devices from the last four years that are running a version older than iPadOS 17. On the other hand, it is probably also due to the longer intervals at which users replace their devices with newer models. A new version can simply no longer be installed on very old devices because Apple no longer offers upgrades for them.

App developers should also be pleased with the high level of updating. The more users update to the latest version of the operating system, the easier it is for them to make early use of new APIs and technical possibilities of the operating systems without excluding large parts of their user base. If they use the APIs of iOS 17, they even reach 91% of all iPhone users surveyed. On the iPad with iPadOS 17, they reach 85 percent of all users.

(mki)