After more than two months of availability, Apple's newest mobile operating system, iOS 8, is now installed on 63 percent of iOS, according to new numbers posted on Apple's App Store support page for developers.
iOS 8's installation numbers have increased approximately seven percent over the course of the last month, and installation numbers are up 11 percent since October 27. iOS 7 usage, meanwhile, has dropped from 43 percent in October to 33 percent as of December 8.
Apple's own iOS 8 adoption estimates are based on App Store usage and are mirrored closely by data from analytics service MixPanel, which puts iOS 8 adoption at 63.94 percent as of today.
The number of users installing iOS 8 initially stagnated at 47 percent just three weeks after the software was first released to the public, but installation numbers have been climbing steadily since then due to a number of bug fixes and an email campaign from Apple encouraging users to upgrade.
iOS 8's low adoption rates were likely due to several major bugs the software faced in its early days and a lack of space on 16GB devices for installing the OS. Apple's recent email campaign attempted to alleviate the latter issue, informing users with little space on their devices that they could upgrade through iTunes.
iOS 8.1, iOS 8.1.1, and iOS 8.1.2, introduced today, all brought bug fixes for several major issues, repairing problems and improving the stability of iOS 8. Apple is also working on iOS 8.2, which is expected to bring additional bug fixes and has been seeded to developers for testing purposes.
Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code.
In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak.
As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.
According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas.
We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features.
Transfer to Android
Apple is making it simpler...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
Still proudly on iOS 7, and iOS 6 on one of my iPads. iOS 6 is much faster than iOS 7.
I'll use iOS 8 when I buy the iPhone 6 Plus, but won't be installing it on any of my current devices.
Will stick with iOS 6 on my iPad till it breaks and then no more iPads for me.I can't stand iOS 7/8 on my iPad just boring and flat with blinding white and Hello kitty icons:)
I never could understand this metric. Since all new iphones have come with ios8 preinstalled, and they're selling millions, the number is gonna climb since people have NO CHOICE but to use ios 8. Nor do those who upgraded to ios 8 from 7 have the CHOICE to downgrade if they decided they didnt like 8 (at least not without a huge complicated process).
The only real metric of ios 8's popularity would be people who chose to upgrade and were actually glad they did. So these numbers seem irrelevant to me.
