iOS and Android distribution figures by OS update

[Lloydbm41]

Here are the latest figures as of the first week of December from both Apple and Google, regarding iOS and Android. While Apple updates much quicker, fragmentation is now beginning to show up from iOS 3 to iOS 7. What is more interesting is that there are still approx 14% of iPhone 2G-3GS phones operating worldwide, roughly the same number of iPhone 6/6+ phones that have been sold.

Android Lollipop won't show up in the figures until next month, but less than 1% of devices have it, according to latest estimates. Froyo is no longer listed as it is less than half a percentage of devices.

 

[TimelessOne]

You forget apple keep basic updates and features in os updates. Minus ui changes Google provides most of its features and new items to older os threw play services.

Remote locking device was added in iOS 7 and requires it. Android 4.0 gained that feature for it not long after iOS 7 was released. This is threw play services. That is one example.

The fragmentation is not as bad. Nor does Google break as much stuff on os updates like Apple does.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

You forget apple keep basic updates and features in os updates. Minus ui changes Google provides most of its features and new items to older os threw play services.

Remote locking device was added in iOS 7 and requires it. Android 4.0 gained that feature for it not long after iOS 7 was released. This is threw play services. That is one example.

The fragmentation is not as bad. Nor does Google break as much stuff on os updates like Apple does.

I am quite pleased Apple keeps some features exclusive to newer devices to be honest. I would be pretty annoyed if a 4 year old iPhone was getting all the same features that were available to me on an iPhone 6.

 

[cdmoore74]

I am quite pleased Apple keeps some features exclusive to newer devices to be honest. I would be pretty annoyed if a 4 year old iPhone was getting all the same features that were available to me on an iPhone 6.

I think that the only software exclusive features a newer device should have must be hardware based features that would be impossible to add to older tech.
Otherwise why bother upgrading if you're going to gimp on software. Plus even with removed software features sometimes a newer OS will make the device run worse. In Apples quest to show that people are running the latest version it does more harm than good for super old devices. Sometimes it's better to retire a iPhone 4 for a iPhone 6. Why even suffer with a phone that came out in 2010?

 

[JH-]

I am quite pleased Apple keeps some features exclusive to newer devices to be honest. I would be pretty annoyed if a 4 year old iPhone was getting all the same features that were available to me on an iPhone 6.

I'm struggling to understand this. Why do those 4 year old phones affect you?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I'm struggling to understand this. Why do those 4 year old phones affect you?

They don't affect me personally. I do enjoy getting new things when I upgrade though and if older devices had the same entitlements with software then there would be less incentive to get a newer phone IMHO. If you are on a 2 year upgrade cycle and the amount of benefits was reduced, then it would be an upgrade for the sake of an upgrade. At present you get a little more for your money and I support that. Just my opinion though and I am happy to agree to disagree on this.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I am quite pleased Apple keeps some features exclusive to newer devices to be honest. I would be pretty annoyed if a 4 year old iPhone was getting all the same features that were available to me on an iPhone 6.

Your hardware would still be an upgrade. When Siri first came out on the 4S, I was a little pissed that it wasn't available on my 4. And that was only a year's difference.

I still have my iPad 2. iOS8 is basically nothing more than a visual skin with all it's missing features.

 

[mrex]

They don't affect me personally. I do enjoy getting new things when I upgrade though and if older devices had the same entitlements with software then there would be less incentive to get a newer phone IMHO. If you are on a 2 year upgrade cycle and the amount of benefits was reduced, then it would be an upgrade for the sake of an upgrade. At present you get a little more for your money and I support that. Just my opinion though and I am happy to agree to disagree on this.

so basicly this means you are actually paying alot for os upgrades...

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

so basicly this means you are actually paying alot for os upgrades...

Not if you get the current iPhone because you get the hardware benefit too. It makes the upgrade worth your while.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Your hardware would still be an upgrade. When Siri first came out on the 4S, I was a little pissed that it wasn't available on my 4. And that was only a year's difference.

I still have my iPad 2. iOS8 is basically nothing more than a visual skin with all it's missing features.

You weren't alone in feeling pissed off about the lack of Siri on the iPhone 4. Looking back now, I can see why it was left out, but Apple could have added it to the 4 with a simple * notation. All they had to say was, '*iphone 4 owners need to hold the phone close to the mouthpiece when speaking requests to Siri.'

 

[minimo3]

Something is not adding up. The chart indicates that iPhone 3GS and older devices make up 14% of iOS devices overall. The 3GS and older models can only run iOS 6 and earlier. However, iOS 6 and earlier make up just 4% of the chart? What happened to the other 10% (14%-4% of older models)?

 

[mi7chy]

You weren't alone in feeling pissed off about the lack of Siri on the iPhone 4. Looking back now, I can see why it was left out, but Apple could have added it to the 4 with a simple * notation. All they had to say was, '*iphone 4 owners need to hold the phone close to the mouthpiece when speaking requests to Siri.'

It's Apple's forced obsolescence to get you to buy new hardware because there's no reason iPhone 4 can't do it since it's a simple voice recording that gets analyzed in the cloud. The original Galaxy S from same 2010 year can do Google voice commands and Google Now.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Something is not adding up. The chart indicates that iPhone 3GS and older devices make up 14% of iOS devices overall. The 3GS and older models can only run iOS 6 and earlier. However, iOS 6 and earlier make up just 4% of the chart? What happened to the other 10% (14%-4% of older models)?

You are mixing two different statistics into one. That is why it doesn't make sense.

 

[I7guy]

It's Apple's forced obsolescence to get you to buy new hardware because there's no reason iPhone 4 can't do it since it's a simple voice recording that gets analyzed in the cloud. The original Galaxy S from same 2010 year can do Google voice commands and Google Now.

There is a "bit" of difference between SIRI and Google. Google is great for web search; which I never do by voice. SIRI is great for controlling your phone. And you can still do voice web searches through Google from almost any phone.

 

[Lloydbm41]

It's Apple's forced obsolescence to get you to buy new hardware because there's no reason iPhone 4 can't do it since it's a simple voice recording that gets analyzed in the cloud. The original Galaxy S from same 2010 year can do Google voice commands and Google Now.

Had to do with the A5 chip having a better dedicated noise cancellation addition. Allowed the software to pick up voice commands from a further distance. Siri still worked fine on the 4, but Apple needed a differentiator to sell the 4S. While I believe you are right in that Apple does these sort of things to push people to upgrade, I can also see why they didn't want to risk iPhone 4 people complaining that Siri sucked because it would never understand them in the car or train or any semi-noisy environment.

 

[g0df4th3r]

It's Apple's forced obsolescence to get you to buy new hardware because there's no reason iPhone 4 can't do it since it's a simple voice recording that gets analyzed in the cloud.

Agreed. I remember when the Siri app was available in the app store, then when the 4S came out Apple pulled it off. Then they introduced NFC on the iPhone 6 and 6+ for Apple pay. What about the people using the 5S who wants to experience Apple pay. I remember when Apple introduced the 5s as the 'Most forward thinking iPhone ever'. Forward thinking my @ss.

 

[mi7chy]

If you noticed I said voice commands and not voice search so you can sms, create note/reminder, set alarm, create calendar event, call by name, play song by name, etc. by voice along with predictive Google Now notification it's superior to Sori.

 

[I7guy]

But by the time the 64-bit apps are widespread, the 5s would be obsolete. It's not that 64-bit isn't applicable long term, but for the 5s it isn't. Most fandroids downplaying it is the same as Apple iSheeps downplaying having big screens. Now the 6+ is the greatest thing.

Judging from Apple iOS updates, I give the 5s four years until IOS updates stops. Four years with updates plus a few without.

 

[gotluck]

I am quite pleased Apple keeps some features exclusive to newer devices to be honest. I would be pretty annoyed if a 4 year old iPhone was getting all the same features that were available to me on an iPhone 6.

Ugh this is exactly what pisses me off most about Apple. Always planned obsolescence breathing down your neck. Along with the critical choice of , do I update my device? Because you can never go back and performance may suffer.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Agreed. I remember when the Siri app was available in the app store, then when the 4S came out Apple pulled it off. Then they introduced NFC on the iPhone 6 and 6+ for Apple pay. What about the people using the 5S who wants to experience Apple pay. I remember when Apple introduced the 5s as the 'Most forward thinking iPhone ever'. Forward thinking my @ss.

There is a difference between Siri (software) and Apple Pay with NFC and secure enclave (hardware). You can't retrofit an iPhone 5 or 5S with the necessary hardware to run Apple Pay. The iphone 4 actually had the first gen hardware to run Siri. Apple just choose not to allow the software to run on it.

 

[g0df4th3r]

There is a difference between Siri (software) and Apple Pay with NFC and secure enclave (hardware). You can't retrofit an iPhone 5 or 5S with the necessary hardware to run Apple Pay. The iphone 4 actually had the first gen hardware to run Siri. Apple just choose not to allow the software to run on it.

I was agreeing on the post about Apple's forced obsolence to make people buy the latest. They did it with the 4 and 4s and now with the 5s and 6. I was saying that people who own the 5S and want to use Apple Pay are left behind since their phones don't have NFC chips.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Ugh this is exactly what pisses me off most about Apple. Always planned obsolescence breathing down your neck. Along with the critical choice of , do I update my device? Because you can never go back and performance may suffer.

I suppose the flip-side is you could be stuck on a platform that has long forgotten about your phone and the chances of getting an update are about as slim as finding hens teeth. At least Apple offer support to phones up to 4 years old, even if they don't have all the software features of their current flagship. I doubt an iPhone 4S could handle a fully functional version of iOS 8 in any case.

I upgrade every 2 years and this falls on the release of the first iteration of each iPhone launch. Sure I may miss a few features when the S model comes out but then again it never long to wait. I like to sell my device while it is still worth a decent amount of money, just enough to make the upgrade transition pretty much free in regards to the upfront fee. The contract stays the same. I can understand this policy is frustrating for the people who are desperately trying to keep their iPhone 3GS's and 4's going, but by now I think they have got their money's worth. For those wanting regular, feature packed updates, I assume their are other less expensive options.

 

[Oletros]

I suppose the flip-side is you could be stuck on a platform that has long forgotten about your phone and the chances of getting an update are about as slim as finding hens teeth. At least Apple offer support to phones up to 4 years old, even if they don't have all the software features of their current flagship. I doubt an iPhone 4S could handle a fully functional version of iOS 8 in any case.

I upgrade every 2 years and this falls on the release of the first iteration of each iPhone launch. Sure I may miss a few features when the S model comes out but then again it never long to wait. I like to sell my device while it is still worth a decent amount of money, just enough to make the upgrade transition pretty much free in regards to the upfront fee. The contract stays the same. I can understand this policy is frustrating for the people who are desperately trying to keep their iPhone 3GS's and 4's going, but by now I think they have got their money's worth. For those wanting regular, feature packed updates, I assume their are other less expensive options.

iOS updates are very different from Android updates, you don't need a os update to have new features

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I was agreeing on the post about Apple's forced obsolence to make people buy the latest. They did it with the 4 and 4s and now with the 5s and 6. I was saying that people who own the 5S and want to use Apple Pay are left behind since their phones don't have NFC chips

But that is life mate. In this industry and much of the electronics industry you know when you buy a product that an updated version will come out in the not too distant future. If manufacturers were afraid to introduce a product with new features out of fear at making an older product partially redundant, then the market would never evolve. I bought an iPhone 6 and have a fair idea that around perhaps September 2015 or maybe before Apple will bring out an iPhone 6S (or 7) that will be better than the phone I have now. I am not going to cry anybody a river if it can do something my iP6 can't.

The iPhone 6 was being leaked for around 6 months before its launch maybe even longer. Anybody who bought a 5S in this time (I know people who did), who now feel aggrieved because the latest phone is slightly better are not living in the real world IMO. The 5S is still a fantastic phone in its own right and is more than capable of being so for another 2 years at least. Yes it has slightly less features, but that is the way the cookie crumbles and no phone is completely future proof.

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iOS updates are very different from Android updates, you don't need a os update to have new features

I am aware of that, I used Android for years and still use it occasionally with work.

 

[Tsepz]

For me, the fact that Google used a 32bit CPU in their latest and greatest Nexus phone says a lot about how much of a rush (or lack there of rather) they are for 64bit in Android.

That said, I am glad Apple came in and shook the industry with a 64bit CPU over a year ago, it caught many off guard and has them scrambling to get better SoCs out, whether or not 64bit has any sort of significant performance advantage, its good to see a whole lot of movement to get smaller, faster and more efficient chips out, we all stand to benefit in the end.

It reminds me of the iPhone and iPhone3G days when phone and SoC makers began placing more importance in UI and GPU, as before that, we had phones like the N95 that had a powerful GPU but hardly used it and a UI that was rather 'meh'.