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Updated iOS device and OS version stats from Instapaper

57 points by siglesias 15y ago

TylerBrock 15y ago
83% on the latest release huh? When iOS 5 launches with OTA updates these numbers will be even better. Sounds like Apple doesn't have a fragmentation problem. Wish Google would make their updates work like Chrome's, seamless and transparent.
phren0logy 15y ago
Interesting stuff. Keeping the OS so up to date has got to help both users and developers. As a nitpick, the "OS/CPU is at least this" plots are screaming for a CDF graph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_distribution_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_distribution_functio...
viggio24 15y ago
I completely agree. Using 4.x today allows to write code in a much cleaner and efficient way; a few examples: gestures (for iPhone), blocks, GCD. Besides multitasking and background processing allows features that were impossible to get or required complicated hacks. And now that we must provide iOS4 and iOS5 mixed compatibility, we cannot absolutely maintain any compatibility with iOS3.
- reidmain 15y ago
  It is quite impressive that in just over a year developers are able to start requiring iOS 4. I hope that iOS 5's OTA updates we could get to the point where iOS versions older than a few months are considered obsolete. Apple has done a great job at fostering this culture of upgrading as soon as possible. Microsoft and Google still have problems were the average consumers see OS updates as something that can cause problems, not bring new features.
  - tmgrhm 15y ago
    >I hope that iOS 5's OTA updates we could get to the point where iOS versions older than a few months are considered obsolete. While a very nice idea, I'm not convinced it much will change due to old hardware being incompatible with new versions of iOS. It's rarely the x.y versions which are the barriers to progress, but the x.0 versions.
    - reidmain 15y ago
      That is true but Apple does seem to have a higher adoption rate with their physical products. iOS 4 killed support for the original iPhone and now iOS 5 is killing support for the iPhone 3G. When the iPhone 5 comes out this fall I think by June of next year there will be enough penetration of iOS 5 that some apps will be able to put that requirement on it. Heck if we're lucky iOS 6 will finally kill support for non-Retina displays.
RyanKearney 15y ago
And when iOS 5 is released Instapaper will become completely unnecessary.
- st3fan 15y ago
  Care to explain why?
  - rkudeshi 15y ago
    Probably because Apple's adding Reading List, an Instapaper-lite clone. However, Marco's said he's "cautiously optimistic" that it will actually drive up the number of users of Instapaper. http://www.marco.org/2011/06/06/safari-reader-and-instapaper http://www.marco.org/2011/06/06/safari-reader-and-instapaper
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- siglesias 15y ago
  Maybe for some users, but by no means everybody. 1) Reading List is Safari only. 2) Many popular apps (such as Twitter for iOS) actually support Instapaper's Read Later, whereas I'm not sure that there is a Read Later API (someone correct me if I'm wrong). 3) Instapaper has social sharing built in.
  - Skroob 15y ago
    I've been using the iOS 5 betas and I can tell you I use Reading List and Instapaper completely differently. Instapaper has always been long form reading, stored for later (and potentially offline). Reading List, I use to quickly transfer a site I'm currently reading from my desktop to my iPad or iPhone, incidentally replacing an app I wrote to do exactly that. I guess it's time to take Panic's Audion advice and retire that app ("When you double click the competition in the morning, that's a pretty good sign that it's time to hang up your hat!", http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/ http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/)
  - derefr 15y ago
reidmain 15y ago
Does anyone know of any other developers that have published these kind of stats? I suspect that Instapaper was extremely popular with the techie/start-up crowd when it first launched but it has become quite well known in these last three years and I'm wondering if it has pushed through to your regular Joe consumer yet. It would be great to get a couple more points of data so we can show that most people are using iOS 4 to help push forward the phasing out of iOS 3 support.
trotsky 15y ago
Funny that the two ipad models are dead even considering they've shipped more than twice as many original ipads. It would seem a full 50% of gruber's readers replaced their ipad's with the ipad 2. No wonder apple is crushing tablet sales.
- tmgrhm 15y ago
  >It would seem a full 50% of gruber's readers replaced their ipad's with the ipad 2. What does Gruber have to do with this? Do you mean Marco?
  - hboon 15y ago
    He might have meant for you to replace "gruber's readers" as "Apple fanboys".
  - trotsky 15y ago
    Yup, sorry meant marco.

57 points by siglesias 15y ago

83% on the latest release huh? When iOS 5 launches with OTA updates these numbers will be even better. Sounds like Apple doesn't have a fragmentation problem. Wish Google would make their updates work like Chrome's, seamless and transparent.

phren0logy 15y ago

Interesting stuff. Keeping the OS so up to date has got to help both users and developers. As a nitpick, the "OS/CPU is at least this" plots are screaming for a CDF graph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_distribution_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_distribution_functio...

viggio24 15y ago

I completely agree. Using 4.x today allows to write code in a much cleaner and efficient way; a few examples: gestures (for iPhone), blocks, GCD. Besides multitasking and background processing allows features that were impossible to get or required complicated hacks. And now that we must provide iOS4 and iOS5 mixed compatibility, we cannot absolutely maintain any compatibility with iOS3.

reidmain 15y ago
It is quite impressive that in just over a year developers are able to start requiring iOS 4. I hope that iOS 5's OTA updates we could get to the point where iOS versions older than a few months are considered obsolete. Apple has done a great job at fostering this culture of upgrading as soon as possible. Microsoft and Google still have problems were the average consumers see OS updates as something that can cause problems, not bring new features.
- tmgrhm 15y ago
  >I hope that iOS 5's OTA updates we could get to the point where iOS versions older than a few months are considered obsolete. While a very nice idea, I'm not convinced it much will change due to old hardware being incompatible with new versions of iOS. It's rarely the x.y versions which are the barriers to progress, but the x.0 versions.
  - reidmain 15y ago
    That is true but Apple does seem to have a higher adoption rate with their physical products. iOS 4 killed support for the original iPhone and now iOS 5 is killing support for the iPhone 3G. When the iPhone 5 comes out this fall I think by June of next year there will be enough penetration of iOS 5 that some apps will be able to put that requirement on it. Heck if we're lucky iOS 6 will finally kill support for non-Retina displays.

RyanKearney 15y ago

And when iOS 5 is released Instapaper will become completely unnecessary.

st3fan 15y ago
Care to explain why?
- rkudeshi 15y ago
  Probably because Apple's adding Reading List, an Instapaper-lite clone. However, Marco's said he's "cautiously optimistic" that it will actually drive up the number of users of Instapaper. http://www.marco.org/2011/06/06/safari-reader-and-instapaper http://www.marco.org/2011/06/06/safari-reader-and-instapaper
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
siglesias 15y ago
Maybe for some users, but by no means everybody. 1) Reading List is Safari only. 2) Many popular apps (such as Twitter for iOS) actually support Instapaper's Read Later, whereas I'm not sure that there is a Read Later API (someone correct me if I'm wrong). 3) Instapaper has social sharing built in.
- Skroob 15y ago
  I've been using the iOS 5 betas and I can tell you I use Reading List and Instapaper completely differently. Instapaper has always been long form reading, stored for later (and potentially offline). Reading List, I use to quickly transfer a site I'm currently reading from my desktop to my iPad or iPhone, incidentally replacing an app I wrote to do exactly that. I guess it's time to take Panic's Audion advice and retire that app ("When you double click the competition in the morning, that's a pretty good sign that it's time to hang up your hat!", http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/ http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/)
- derefr 15y ago

reidmain 15y ago

Does anyone know of any other developers that have published these kind of stats? I suspect that Instapaper was extremely popular with the techie/start-up crowd when it first launched but it has become quite well known in these last three years and I'm wondering if it has pushed through to your regular Joe consumer yet. It would be great to get a couple more points of data so we can show that most people are using iOS 4 to help push forward the phasing out of iOS 3 support.

trotsky 15y ago

Funny that the two ipad models are dead even considering they've shipped more than twice as many original ipads. It would seem a full 50% of gruber's readers replaced their ipad's with the ipad 2. No wonder apple is crushing tablet sales.

tmgrhm 15y ago
>It would seem a full 50% of gruber's readers replaced their ipad's with the ipad 2. What does Gruber have to do with this? Do you mean Marco?
- hboon 15y ago
  He might have meant for you to replace "gruber's readers" as "Apple fanboys".
- trotsky 15y ago
  Yup, sorry meant marco.