Nearly 300 Million Devices Running iOS 6, 60% of All iOS Devices Ever

In its iOS 6.1 press release today, Apple disclosed some impressive usage numbers for iOS 6 and the iOS platform. As of today, nearly 300 million iOS devices -- iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch -- are running iOS 6, with nine billion photos uploaded to Photo Stream, 450 billion iMessages sent and over four trillion notifications received.

iphone ipad ipad mini update
Of these, perhaps the most impressive is that 300 million devices are currently running iOS 6. That is, as EdibleApple points out, roughly 60 percent of all iOS devices ever sold:

During Apple’s most recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple to date has sold over 500 million iOS devices. If we put those pieces together we see that over half of every iOS device ever sold is now running the most recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Contrast that of course to Android where a scant minority of users are ever caught running the most recent iteration of Android.

The Next Web notes that Apple sold some 75 million iOS devices in the December quarter alone, all of which are running iOS 6, plus 100 million upgrades to iOS 6 in its first week of availability back in September.

Apple has clearly been successful in keeping devices upgraded to the latest version of iOS, particularly through the over-the-air update feature that was introduced last year in iOS 5. This keeps iOS devices secure, and keeps users up to date with the latest new features to come out of Cupertino.

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...

Top Rated Comments

phillipduran Avatar
162 months ago
Contrast that of course to Android where a scant minority of users are ever caught running the most recent iteration of Android.

They probably just cant find the right download link, for the right provider, for the right version of phone they are using and after they confirmed that the version in question is approved by the various providers of cell service.

Man, I love this Open OS stuff! :D
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hello12 Avatar
162 months ago
IOs 6 is already the best OS for a phone. But iOS 7 needs to be revolutionary (by that I mean introduce a lot of the features users are dying to have). I hope they listen.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Peace Avatar
162 months ago
If only it was ''all'' the latest features...

Well there seems to be about 299,999,000 people that don't come on macrumors and complain about it.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
agaytime Avatar
162 months ago
:eek:

And people say Android is fragmented!?!

Android is fragmented. :apple:
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
slffl Avatar
162 months ago
What do you mean? I have a Samsung Galaxy S, released at the same time as the iPhone 4, that runs Android 2.2 which is the latest version of Android right? Right? Because that's all it supports and it never says it has any updates.

----------

Clean up the GUI, better keyboard (i.e. Swype), Haptic feedback for starters.

I could go on.

OMG are you kidding me? GUI is way better than androids. So is keyboard. Apparently you dont know how the iPhone keyboard works in the background. Haptic feedback is useless.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Casiotone Avatar
162 months ago
What counts, is that Apple can use these ambiguous numbers to put in a chart to brag about in their press conferences. And what about the developers of Apple products? They used to have to make only one app for the iPhone, now you have the 4/4S resolution, 5 resolution, iPad Mini/iPad 2 resolution and iPad 4 resolution. Plus like I said, not all products have the same features, yet it's all gathered under the same name. That's also fragmentation, but Apple doesn't seem to admit it.
Why would anyone care about these numbers if not in the context of app development?

Obviously Apple brags about them to show that iOS is (still) a huge market for developers. The fact that the 3GS/4 can't do panoramas or Siri doesn't change anything about that. (If anything, it means more sales for panorama apps).

I like how you tried to make the screen issue bigger than it is. There's really only 3 screens form factors to target on iOS, as retina versions run on non-retina displays without any additional work.

1 - 960x640 (works on 480x320 displays without modification)
2 - 1136x640 (doesn't take really much more work than 960x640 as it can use the same icons/assets)
3 - 2048x1536 (works on 1024x768 displays without modification)

Having 3 different screen formats to target is nothing compared to dealing with APIs from multiple OS versions. Do you know anything about mobile development? OS updates are more than user-end features.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)