Apple’s iOS adoption data shows consistency

Apple has published its official iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures on its developer website. While they do show a slightly slower upgrade pace than in past years, it’s far from the dramatic falloff implied by StatCounter earlier this year following a change in how it gathered this information.

What are the latest adoption numbers?

The company says its numbers are based on iPhones and iPads that transacted on the App Store on Feb. 12, 2026. The statistics are more or less in line with those for previous years:

74% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (since 2022) are running iOS 26.

66% of all iPhones are running iOS 26.

66% of all iPads introduced in the last four years are running iPadOS 26.

57% of all iPads are running iPadOS 26.

How do the numbers compare with previous years?

To compare, here are Apple’s iOS 18 adoption figures at around this time last year:

76% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (since 2021 at that point) were running iOS 18.

68% of all iPhones were running iOS 18.

63% of all iPads introduced in the last four years were running iPadOS 18.

53% of all iPads were running iPadOS 18.

It is also worth noting that iPadOS adoption has increased, year-on-year. 

Focusing only on iPhones then, in 2024, 76% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (2020) were running iOS 17. Earlier, by June 2023, iOS 16 had reached 90% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (since 2019). That was up on the previous year (2022) when iPhones stood at 89% adoption, while in 2021 iOS 14 was installed on 81% of Apple smartphones introduced since 2017.

Why has adoption slowed — and has it really?

In other words, Apple’s adoption figures show a relatively consistent trend. And while adoption does seem to have slowed in comparison to some years, it’s simply not as dramatic as the StatCounter data suggested:

This could simply be a matter of scale, given there are millions more iPhone users than before — and millions more second-user devices that may not run the latest systems.

It might also reflect a change in people’s attitudes toward updates, and quite possibly reflects the fact that Apple is becoming more proactive at ensuring security updates are installed even without major point upgrades. The main thing is that people upgrade eventually. 

Apple has become a lot more iterative in its approach to updates; while it does ship compelling upgrades from time-to-time, it typically teases out big feature improvements along with each major point upgrade. This also means that eventually during the 12-month lifecycle of an OS version, Apple will ship an improvement that will finally motivate an otherwise reticent customer to upgrade. 

Apple Intelligence and Liquid Glass might have dented adoption, at least among those who expected more of the first and want less of the second. But Apple’s latest data suggests the impact of both things is far, far more limited than online social media would lead you to expect (which may sound familiar). Another factor is the rate and cadence at which the company introduces major updates seems slightly extended this year, likely reflecting the company’s wider product introduction plans, about which we’ll learn more in March.

Apple is not Android

So, has adoption of the latest Apple system upgrades slowed? Not significantly, and what deceleration does exist is easily explained by other completely acceptable factors. 

Of course, what’s most important isn’t so much the numbers themselves as the confidence they should give developers that Apple continues to convince hundreds of millions of people to upgrade to new operating systems relatively swiftly. That means developers can focus on the most recent versions rather than spending much energy supporting old ones.

Apple’s platforms are not like others, as you do not sacrifice millions of customers solely by focusing on the current operating system versions. That’s good for developers, good for customers, and if your business happens to be mobile, quite possibly good for you.

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