It is emerging that adoption of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS 9 is not happening as fast as iOS 8 in 2014, at least within the first 24 hours. According to mobile analytics firm Mixpanel, iOS 9 adoption within 24 hours stood at 12% of iOS devices it tracks. That penetration almost matches iOS 8 in the same period last year. However, iOS 8 launch was hit by hiccups that slowed down adoption pace and iOS 9 was expected to see a faster adoption rate.
12% penetration
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS 9 is promising a new world of experience for users. However, the adoption of the operating system appears to be a little bit slower compared to predecessor iOS 8 a year ago. Within 24 hours of release, 12% of iOS devices that Mixpanel monitors had already upgraded to iOS 8. The same progress is being seen with iOS 9, which hit the same mark within the same time period.
The problem with iOS 8
While iOS 9 adoption may appear to be progressing at the same rate as iOS, its adoption should have been faster. Note that iOS 8 reached the 12% penetration mark despite presenting upgrade challenges that put off many people who wanted to adopt it immediately.
The problem with iOS 8 was that it required the device to have much larger free local storage to support upgrade. However, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has corrected the free storage requirement by making iOS 9 almost four times smaller than iOS 8, and that should have allowed more people to upgrade within 24 hours compared to iOS 8.
Explaining the problem
Attempts to explain the seemingly slightly slower adoption of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS 9 cite server issues. Because many people elected to upgrade immediately the software arrived, server downtime may have impacted the pace of adoption.
Nevertheless, the penetration of iOS 9 within 24 hours compares with what Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android Lollipop only achieved after 5 months.
