It’s not like we would have expected anything else, but I’m not entirely sure why anybody believes them anymore. Earlier this week, Apple launched some new devices (or something) during which the above slide was shown to compare Apple’s iOS status compared to Android’s. Apple VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, then felt the need to say that only 25% of Android devices are using the latest Android operating system, Android KitKat, and that 54% of users are using a “more than 2-year-old” operating system in Android Jelly Bean.
While the objective facts are correct, let’s put a little perspective into this argument – Android owns a 80% global smartphone market share whereas Apple owns less than 20%, and anyone good at maths will tell you 25% of that 80% is just about equal to all of Apple’s smartphone install base. Similarly, the comment about Jelly Bean being 2 years old is correct, however this enables many more devices, some which cost only a fraction of the iPhones and iPads, access to an operating system which is pretty fluid – compare this to installing iOS 7 or iOS 8 onto an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S and rendering it almost useless. Federighi also mentions that iOS 8 has achieved 48% install rates on their devices since its launch, but neglected to cite the statistic that 46% of iOS owners had already installed iOS 8 five days after launch, meaning that the install base has only increased by 2% over the last three weeks.
Now, I don’t mean to bash on Apple, but arguing moot points like install rates and comparing it to Android, an operating system that is known for fragmentation (but arguably has a good reason for it), seems more than a little desperate. Â But enough of what I think, what do you think of what Apple has said? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Phone Arena
