iOS versions market share in April 2023
Let's look at how the various operating systems we offer SDKs for are faring.
As of March 31, 2023, these are the market shares of major iOS versions in the TelemetryDeck data set:
- iOS 16: 90.7% (+3,0)
- iOS 15: 9.0% (-2.8)
- iOS 14: 0.2% (–)
- Other: 0.1% (-0.2)
Let's compare this to our last Orbital Survey: the overwhelming majority of iPhones and iPads are running iOS 16, but another 3% of users have switched to iOS 16.
iOS 15 continues to dwindle, and iOS 14 is almost nonexistent in the TelemetryDeck data set.
Almost all iPhones are running iOS 16
Adoption of iOS 16, which was released to the public on September 12, 2022, was fairly quick. After just one day, more than a quarter of iOS devices in the TelemetryDeck data set were running iOS 16.
On October 20, 2022, just 39 days after the public release, more devices were running iOS 16 than were running iOS 15, at 46.5% running iOS 16 and 44.5% of devices running iOS 15.
On November 3, 2022, more devices were running iOS 16 than any other iOS version.
On March 31, 2023, 90.7% of all iPhones were running iOS 16.
See below for a list of our biases. Want updated information about iOS or Android adoption rates? Subscribe to our newsletter!
iOS 16.4 is being adopted rapidly
In just a few days since its release, iOS Version 16.4 has already risen to 9.6% market share among devices running a version of iOS 16.
16.4's adoption curve seems particularly steep, and we think that is because of the goose emoji finally being included in this version! If you have that version installed, you can see it here: 🪿
iOS 16.3 is the most used iOS Version
As of March 31, iOS 16.3 is the most used minor version of iOS 16. 51.1% of devices in the TelemetryDeck data set with any version of iOS 16.* have that version installed. 9.6% of those devices are running iOS 16.4.
16.1 is still installed on 15.9% of devices, while 16.2 and 16.0 have both fallen to around 11%.
iOS 17 is coming
Because Apple is internally testing apps on their development builds and test devices, we can see whenever they do more testing. It seems as if testing has had a surge in January 2023. This is not surprising, but it is pretty cool to see.
We expect an iOS beta launch for WWDC on June 5, 2023, and the final launch in September 2023, as is customary.
So far there are no mentions of xrOS, the operating system for Apple's rumored headset, in the TelemetryDeck data set.
State of iOS versions in April 2023
Every time Apple releases a new version, be it a point release or a major new version, an overwhelming majority of users are very quick to update.
This is excellent news for developers and users alike: users who run the latest versions of the operating systems not only get all the new features but also tend to be more safe from malware, spyware, and security leaks.
And of course this is wonderful news for developers: by now almost all developers can safely require iOS 16 for their apps without excluding too many customers.
Analyze your app Add TelemetryDeck to your app today!
Biases in the TelemetryDeck data set
- Our data set currently skews towards small and independent developers, who in turn tend to have more technically minded users.
- The oldest iOS version our SDK supports is iOS 12, so we have no data before that.
- We use the aggregated data from the 1664 apps we manage and around 3 million monthly active users. These charts will be more accurate as we grow.
- Our data set is mostly American and European apps (our most used locales are en_US at 52.28%, followed by en_GB at 11.45% and de_DE at 11.18%) Things might look different in other regions. Below is a chart of our combined locales over time:
