iOS 9 Adoption Rate Tops 80 Percent

Apple's iOS 9, which achieved the fastest iOS adoption rate ever in the days following its September 2015 release, is now installed on 84 percent of Apple's mobile devices as of May 9, according to Apple's developer website. Adoption of iOS 8 is at 11 percent, while earlier OSes are running on 5 percent of devices.

Users have long been keen to keep their iPhones and iPads up to date, but crossing the 80 percent mark for a single OS version is an important step as Apple gears up to release iOS 10. The company is expected to pull back the curtain on iOS 10 at its Worldwide Developers Conference next month and make it available in September. 

Apple iOS 9 adoption numbers are also an indication of how quickly users are upgrading their devices. The operating system is compatible with phones as old as the iPhone 4s, as well as third-generation and newer iPads and fifth-generation or newer iPod touches. It's also an improvement upon the adoption trajectory of its predecessor, iOS 8. Numerous bugs slowed iOS 8's initial adoption, though it eventually reached 85 percent of Apple devices.

iOS 9 wasn't without its own flaws, which included a hyperlink bug that crashed apps, and another that rendered certain apps unable to connect to the Internet without a Wi-Fi connection. Early adopters weren't too concerned, however, and they pushed the iOS 9 adoption rate over 50 percent less than a week after its launch.

Apple likes to tout its iOS adoption rate compared to Google's famously fragmented Android OS. iOS 9 adoption rates are much better than those of the latest Android operating system, Marshmallow, which is installed on just 7.5 percent of devices. But since Android upgrades are left up to the device manufacturer and carriers, not Google itself, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Still, Google is bent on improving its adoption rates, and this year copied Apple's developer strategy by providing early access to its Android N release as part of a developer preview program.