Why iOS Adoption is so high vs Android is so low

Every year we get new operating system for both iOS (from Apple) and Android (from Google / Android) with some additional updates as sub-version to fix any issues. iOS 9 is due this falls, iOS 8 has already been adopted by iOS devices over 85% since it’s launch last year. Similarly Google had launched Android Lollipop last November and it’s adoption rate is still below 20%.

Globally Android system is used more than 80% but when it comes to being up to date iOS takes huge step forward. Let’s see advantages of having latest operating system on your mobile before going into why iOS is adopted so quickly and why Android takes years to be current on all devices.

• New Features: With every new version for iOS and Android, we get tons of new features to improve how we operate the smartphones and make the device smarter than before. Be it some new photo feature or speed of operation. When you don’t have latest version of OS then you are missing great deal of operational efficiency for your device
• Security features: cyber security is very important to all and OS providers make sure they are keeping up to date with latest security features to avoid any issues from potential invaders. To get those all up to date security features, you need latest mobile operating system
• Version optimization problem: For developers to develop new apps, they need to optimize to the particular operating system, to target majority of the devices they need to cover all major OS in use. If there are more version out there it gets more complicated and messy to optimize the app for UX.

So why iOS adoption is staggering over 85% and Android below 20%?

• End to end control: Apple has end to end control over the iOS devices – iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch versus Android being open system and used widely by almost all other mobile manufactures. Open system nature leaves Google with very less to none control over those devices
• Distribution system: With end to end control Apple push their latest OS on devices at once and have it on all devices. iOS devices remind the users to install the latest OS to keep up to date. Android has complicated process, once Google launches the latest Android OS it goes to manufactures, manufactures customize it as needed, test on multiple platforms and then it goes to carrier for their testing and adoptability. Whole process depends on individual phone manufacturer, carrier and at the end user to get latest Android OS. Google controls nexus series Android launch but that’s mere 2-3% of phones globally. In short, lengthy process takes more time and some cases ages to get latest Android system on all devices.
• Scale: iOS devices are limited compared to vast variety for Android devices. As stated earlier there are more than 80% android devices Worldwide compared to less than 20% iOS devices.

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