It was found that iOS 8’s adoption out the door was noticeably slower compared to iOS 7, although the recent figures released by Apple are a bit more encouraging. According to Apple’s App Store support page, it shows that iOS 8’s adoption is currently sitting at 52%, showing the most users have installed the update compared to before.
Prior to this, Apple’s figures revealed a 47 % adoption which was a little over 2 weeks ago, so for it to rise by 5% is encouraging. Chances are the release of iOS 8.1 alongside Apple Pay has probably contributed to the increase in its market share. That and how many new iPhones and iPads with iOS 8 have been sold so far.
Perhaps the hesitation in adoption of iOS 8 is because the OS does not provide an optimal experience for customers who own older iOS devices, which means even if they wanted to, they can’t update without risking a bad user experience in the process. It could also be that while there are some changes made in iOS 8, it wasn’t as “exciting” compared to the visual refresh of iOS 7, hence the slow adoption, but we guess only time will tell if iOS 8’s market share will reach iOS 7 levels next year.