Apple Will Soon Allow iOS Users To Skip Major Updates

If there is one thing that Apple’s iOS does better than Android is that they can get users to adopt new updates a lot faster. Right now, iOS 14 is said to be at 90% adoption. This is compared to Android 11 which comes nowhere close. However, for whatever reason, Apple has decided to mess around with a good thing.

As spotted by Droid-Life, one of the changes that Apple will be making in iOS 15 is that they will allow users to skip major updates. The changelog on Apple’s website reads, “iOS now offers a choice between two software update versions in the Settings app. You can update to the latest version of iOS 15 as soon as it’s released for the latest features and most complete set of security updates. Or continue on iOS 14 and still get important security updates until you’re ready to upgrade to the next major version.”

This means that once iOS 15 is released, it will create two new sets of users – those who upgraded to iOS 15 and those who are choosing to use iOS 14. Based on the current adoption figures, it seems that almost all iOS users tend to upgrade to the latest version, and those who don’t are those who probably own devices that aren’t compatible.

To be fair, there are some advantages to this approach. For some, upgrading to the newer iOS can result in a less-than-ideal experience due to aging hardware, so allowing them to skip major updates and instead receive security updates is a good thing. However, the downside is that this could potentially cause fragmentation within the iOS ecosystem, something that Google has been trying to address for years.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iOS, ios 15, wwdc, wwdc 2021