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slow uptake

Turns out people have practically stopped updating their phones to iOS 8

And in comparison to other years, uptake has been significantly slower.

ROUGHLY TWO WEEKS ago, Apple was able to say that almost half of active iOS devices (46% to be exact) had updated to the latest version in the space of a week.

Fast forward to today and well, that figure hasn’t changed a whole lot. Since then, the uptake has seen a one-point increase and is now at 47%. The same number of users running iOS 7 is also at 47% while the rest run older versions.

Compared to previous years, this adoption rate is slower than normal with MacRumours stating that iOS 7′s adoption reached 69.7% in the space of 20 days.

App store uptake Apple.com Apple.com

While it’s difficult to say what has exactly caused this, there are a few possibilities.

The obvious reason is that a significant number of iPhone and iPad users would own older models that may not be compatible with iOS 8.

Since Apple’s servers were under pressure from millions of iOS 8 downloads the day it launched, it meant that some people were told it would take a few hours, or even a day, for the download to be completed.

It’s possible that those who decided not to go ahead with it that week have forgotten about updating entirely.

Another major factor would be iOS 8′s first update, which carried a number of bugs such as dropped call reception and issues with Touch ID.

Apple did issue an update that fixed these problems a day later, but the option to revert back to iOS 7, which was made available before iOS 8.0.2 was released, could mean that many people simply reverted back to the older version and are reluctant to update.

It’s also important to remember that the figures given by Apple are measured by those who visit the App Store from their devices. Since it ignores those who never download apps or visit the store, it means they aren’t represented in Apple’s official figures.

Read: Google is working on screens that connect together like Lego >

Read: Samsung is bracing itself for a massive drop in profits this quarter >

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