Approximately 2% of all Android devices are using the most up-to-date firmware; how does that compare with iOS?
Well, according to industry tracker Chitika, about 61% of all mobile Apple devices are now powered by the latest version of the iOS operating system.
Of course, unlike Google, Apple does not publicly disclose these kinds of numbers. Chitika’s values are based on a representation of the click-through from mobile ads. There is a large enough sample to make this number statistically significant.
There are of course some legacy iOS devices that are not eligible for the new software, but pretty much every product that is capable of running iOS 6 is now running it.
Contrast that to Android, where there are tons of smartphones and tablets with the technical capability of running Jelly Bean, or even Ice Cream Sandwich, but they are still running Gingerbread, version 2.3.
Apple does a much better job of keeping its users updated but that’s because it not only controls the software, it also controls the hardware. Google needs to work with no fewer than a dozen manufacturers each with their own specific quirks or differentiated design elements.
Nevertheless, Jelly Bean and iOS 6 have been around for about the same amount of time, and the difference between a 2% adoption rate and a 61% adoption rate is pretty huge.
