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How often do iOS users update? - The Pareto Distribution
- HaloZero 13y agoI'd like to point out that Octopart customer base is probably tech friendly (as they are an electronic parts search engine), I would be more curious about numbers from an app geared toward general consumers such as Yelp.
- nwhitehead 13y agoWow, that graph is very surprising to me. I only update apps when I update iOS (very rarely). I find it supremely annoying to update things manually. I would worry that the population being captured is not representative of the general app using population.
- k-mcgrady 13y ago>> "I find it supremely annoying to update things manually" What's annoying about it? It only takes two/three taps: 1. App Store 2. Updates tab 3. 'Update all' A password isn't even required anymore. Personally I don't see how anyone could find that annoying but even if they did most app updates come with new features and the benefits of those far outweigh the 10 seconds of time it took to update.
- myko 13y agoIt's still pretty annoying. I'm assuming auto-update will be an option in the next major OS update, because it is sorely needed.
- k-mcgrady 13y agoObviously it could be more efficient with an auto-update mechanism, but I'm genuinely surprised people find that annoying.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Thrymr 13y agoIt's annoying because it happens every single day. Or more.
- bentcorner 13y agoSome design issues prevent me from updating regularly and when I do, it's a painful process. 1.) Installing applications of size X generally requires 2X amount of space. I'm not a dev so I don't know what happens under the covers, but I can understand why (copy compress package, unpack/uncompress and deploy to filesystem) 2.) When you update, it's an all-or-none proposition with the "Update All" button 3.) Because of 1 & 2, if you're low on space and one application is too big to update, when you press the "Update All" button you get an error message and nothing gets updated So, I now have a red "93" on my App Store icon, and unless I want to manually go and update each non-big app individually, that's how it's going to stay. Bonus: Loading the icons in the "Update" screen impacts the UI something fierce (as does updating, I guess), so Updating individual apps is an exercise in frustration. This scales linearly with the number of apps you need to update, so at this point I'm past the point of no return and will likely not update an app unless it complains directly to me. Even better, finding the app in the update screen is painful since they're sorted by time and not name, so it's nearing the point where if I can't use your app because you complain to me, and you're not an absolutely essential application, I'll probably just delete you.
- MatthewPhillips 13y agoTake a step back and think about the ritual of what you are doing. You are babysitting something that doesn't actually matter to you (maybe it does to you specifically, but it shouldn't have to matter). Think about needing to use an app when you have 10 updating and it is the last in the queue. Remember what computers are for, for getting to information you need.
- micampe 13y ago> Think about needing to use an app when you have 10 updating and it is the last in the queue. If you tap an app icon while they are updating it will be given priority and moved in front of the queue.
- post_break 13y agoWhen I moved to Android I was excited for auto update. Sure three taps seems simple, but people are lazy. Lazy on a level you can't even comprehend where opening the App Store to do anything but install a new app is a chore.
- jgeorge 13y agoI'd hazard to say that the graph is representative of the general app-using population and you are the outlier. You're one of a very small handful of iOS users I know who do this (my girlfriend is another one).
- jsmcallister 13y agoMy wife never updates her iOS apps. Any lawyers here able to tell me whether that constitutes "irreconcilable differences" ?
- chrisa 13y agoThose numbers are close to my app's update rates as well. I found it surprising that it happened so quickly too, but then noticed how my wife updates her apps: she hates those little red numbers, so will update almost immediately to make them go away.
- corylehey 13y agothere are two types of people in this world, those who can tolerate the red badges on their apps and those who cant
- MatthewPhillips 13y agoMy fiance absolutely never updates and also never clears her notifications. She only uses her phone when she wants to... use her phone. And actually, I think that's the rational approach. Updating is a horrible experience. "Hey, guess what! You can't do anything while these 10 apps are updating. And guess what, the one you need is in the back of the queue. And a large game is in the front. You're not getting anything done for a while!" Background auto-updating should be the default on all OSes.
- micampe 13y ago> And guess what, the one you need is in the back of the queue. And a large game is in the front. If you tap an app icon while they are updating it will be given priority and moved in front of the queue.
- threeseed 13y ago> Background auto-updating should be the default on all OSes. And then the foreground app will have slower network speed and performance which given that a mobile device is a bad thing. If I need to quickly check mail I want that to be the only priority of the phone. The current behaviour is just fine. Many poeple are just waiting until the device is plugged in at home/work before updating all apps.
- 13y ago
- quahada 13y agoAlong these lines, it was surprising to me that many non-techies never close out their apps. They leave them running in the background and are not even aware it was possible to close an app. As a developer, this means the only time many users will "restart" the app is when they update, and the restart is forced upon them. So make sure your apps are stable!
- k-mcgrady 13y agoEver as a techie I don't close apps very often. Is there a reason you do?
- danilocampos 13y agoThe need for memory imposes an upper bound on application life. Eventually Safari or a game will require the app close itself.
- arn 13y agoRunning in the background is a bit a misrepresentation. Most aren't really running, and apps will close on their own if resources are needed. I'd say most techies also don't close out their apps. I certainly don't.
- snprbob86 13y agoMore surprising to me is that ANYONE closes out their apps. I've never ever ever pressed that little red (-) icon. On pretty rare occasion, I need to hold power and then hold home to kill an unresponsive app. But I've never "quit" an app when I was done with it. I've had an iPhone since the beginning and my battery life and performance has always been stellar. Only apps that passively use GPS have been a problem , so I uninstall those. This is also (mostly) true on my Mac as well. I leave DOZENS of apps running and only kill them if they start sucking down CPU cycles. Generally, most apps sit there, do nothing, and get paged out to the flash disk. I'm also a little annoyed each time I meet a non-techie who had some techie tell them "Oh, here's how you close apps. It will make your phone faster." Try as I might, I can't convince my girlfriend that it has absolutely no effect. She religiously closes every single app in that little tray once or twice a day. It's 2013 people. We don't (shouldn't?) need to manually manage memory for our computers.
- patmcguire 13y agoFor me it's the Peter Principle - update until the app becomes worse than it was before. I don't trust them not to ruin more things in the future and I can't really revert, so that's where things stay.
- youngerdryas 13y agoIf it is an app you care about then you better go read the reviews before updating because you cannot roll back.
- pixelcort 13y agoSure you can, if you have a backup of the ipa file on your computer.
- youngerdryas 13y agoI haven't connected my phone to my computer for years so that won't really work for me, but yeah you could go that way.
- woobar 13y agoTechnically, you don't need to connect your phone to the computer. It will do it w/o your intervention. I backup/sync all devices in the family to one computer over Wi-Fi.
- youngerdryas 13y agoCan you roll back to a previous version of an app using iCloud after you update? I don't think so.
- woobar 13y agoHow does iCloud comes into this picture? Grandparent suggested using iTunes on computer for ipa backups. I've added that you don't need to connect your phone to that computer.
- VintageCool 13y agoOur server API still receives noticeable traffic for versions of the app that date back to late 2011 when we first launched.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- zmitri 13y agoSame. A lot of people don't update ever unfortunately.
- koyote 13y agoI wonder how this compares to Android users, where (I presume) many users have auto-update turned on.
- dhruvmittal 13y agoI'm also pretty curious about this. I'd assumed that auto-update was a pretty basic feature and that of course iOS would have it- it's only with this thread/article that i'm discovering otherwise. Is there any particular reason that iOS doesn't do automatic updates in the background? I've just got "update automatically on WiFi only" set up on my Android phone and I've never had any problems.
- sph130 13y agoHere's their decision: Update or Delete. People don't like that extra notification laying there. So you will either retain them or loose them when you update. Some who are disengaged will just update all, but those users you care about will either update or delete.
- lobster45 13y agoI only update the apps when I had a chance to read the reviews. Often the latest versions have bugs and may reduce the functionality, so I make sure there is an improvement before updating. For example, I have my old kindle app from 2011 that allows in-app purchases.
- brilee 13y agoThat curve fitting seems a bit off in the middle and at the tail. What does the log plot show? Log-log plot? That will nail down a power law or exponential law if there is one.