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Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

developer.apple.com

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Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#41

Post by interpol_p »

batiudrami wrote: post #5
kmonsen wrote: post #4

As measured by the App store. I would be surprised if the general population is the same distribution. People who go often to the app store probably update more often. Still for developers it is a relevant number.

At the same time, for a developer, those who never go on the app store aren't really important. But I agree, it is likely misrepresenting actual figures.

That's likely the reason it's hosted on developer.apple.com and not their consumer-facing site. (It's also the same way Google measures their OS usage data, also hosted on their developer site.)

Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#43

Post by interpol_p »

Apoptygma wrote: post #2

Shame they only showed the major versions

Agreed. There is an incredibly annoying bug with iOS 6.0.1 that causes a crash when using the photo picker or game center in a specific orientation. And the workaround requires supporting all orientations and editing every view controller in your source.

Knowing how many people are actually affected by this would be incredibly helpful.

Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#45

Post by Samuel_Michon »

saurik wrote: post #38
mh- wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this same argument about the Android numbers presented by Google. But as another reply to your post already pointed out, these are the numbers that are probably the most relevant to a would-be app creator.

The problem is that this biases the statistics due to the 14-day window: everyone who buys a new iPhone goes to the App Store in order to download some "staple apps", but after the unitial setup a lot of users might only go to the App Store every three weeks (for example), meaning that newly purchased devices will be over-represented in the statics, and they all have iOS 6. Honestly, though: even correcting for this…

> The problem is that this biases the statistics due to the 14-day window: everyone who buys a new iPhone goes to the App Store in order to download some "staple apps"

How do you know that’s how Apple measures OS version share? Why would Apple limit itself to only measuring when users open the App Store?

Any iOS device that ever connects to the Internet checks in with Apple to be activated and registered. After that, iOS regularly checks for OS and app updates. If I own an iOS device that I never update and never visit the App Store on, that device will still check for updates and will transmit version data to Apple. Also, because every iOS device has a unique ID, more active users won‘t be counted double.

Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#46

Post by Samuel_Michon »

dataxpress wrote: post #16

When you have a million users, 70,000 of them is a pretty big number to neglect. edit: numbers

Part of that 7% are people who choose not to upgrade, they aren’t neglected. iOS 6 runs on devices as old as 4 years. Meanwhile, every day new Android models are launched that come with years old system software and will never see an update.

Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#48

Post by smackfu »

pilif wrote: post #13
PiersonBro wrote: post #8

This is clearly a follow up to the marketing push to developers that began at WWDC. An unsurprising addition given the fact that there's really no solution to the iOS 7 UI revamp without making Apps iOS 7 only.

It was my impression from the sessions that applications which use mostly system UI can be done in a way that works (and looks nice) on both OSes by relying on AutoLayout. And if you made a completely custom UI, it'll look as foreign to iOS7 as it looks to iOS6 now.

The trouble is the people in the middle. They used system UI where possible, but then rolled their own where Apple didn't have a good solution. If you recompile those apps against iOS 7 SDK, your app looks like junk, and it's a lot of work to fix it. If it's not a super-profitable app, are you really going to go back and get new art done, or are you just going to keep it the same, by using old XCode or something.

The other trouble is that a lot of devs don't use AutoLayout, because it's historically been very hard to get working right. And transitioning your app to it hasn't had many benefits in the past.

Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#49

Post by kamjam »

danielsamuels wrote: post #34
coryl wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, it prompted me to log in.

Yeah, but you can just use a standard Apple account, you don't need to be a developer.

I was able to see it without any login prompt, I don't have any Apple account whatsoever.

Re: Apple now shows iOS usage share on App Store

#50

Post by smackfu »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #46
dataxpress wrote: post #16

When you have a million users, 70,000 of them is a pretty big number to neglect. edit: numbers

Part of that 7% are people who choose not to upgrade, they aren’t neglected. iOS 6 runs on devices as old as 4 years. Meanwhile, every day new Android models are launched that come with years old system software and will never see an update.

> iOS 6 runs on devices as old as 4 years.

It's an interesting side effect of Apple selling old hardware as a new lower cost option for several years. Apple isn't being altruistic or noble by supporting those devices... they are giving normal support for a device that someone can still buy new with a two-year contract.

Once Apple actually retires a product, like the iPad 1, it stops getting updates pretty quickly.

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