4 ms·

One stat I noticed in his review was the adoption rates of iOS 7 and 8. It makes me wonder how many of the people who haven't upgraded are jailbreakers.

twoodfin 12y ago
I think the disaster that was 8.0.1 prevented a lot of what would normally have been the second wave of upgrades. People heard "iOS update bricks your phone!" and didn't do what the little upgrade popup suggested, even after 8.0.2 resolved the issue. There are also a lot of 4S phones out there, and quite a bit of press around the launch that advised people on 4S's not to upgrade.
- joosters 12y ago
  I didn't upgrade my 4S, based solely upon Ars Technica's advice regarding the slowdown. Since then, I've weakened and bought an iPhone 6... so I guess I'll use 'Not upgraded to iOS 8' as a selling point when I flog the old phone on eBay :)
praseodym 12y ago
Most likely because iOS8 requires you to have heaps of storage space available for an OTA update; http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ios_8_storage_space http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ios_8_storage_space
colinramsay 12y ago
Daring Fireball touched on this - apparently one reason that people didn't upgrade is because they didn't have enough spare space on their device to complete the install. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4431 http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4431
- mikeash 12y ago
  It's a major problem. iOS 8 demands something like 5GB of free space. The existing OS takes up maybe 4GB, so on your 16GB device, you can't upgrade if you're using more than 7GB or so. Not even half! It's still possible to upgrade using a computer, but how many people even know you can do that anymore? The days of syncing with iTunes are long gone.
  - TillE 12y ago
    I know why they keep offering 16GB devices as the baseline (easy upsell), but it's got to be a lousy user experience for people who do buy them. Just installing iWork and GarageBand will eat up a huge chunk of that.
    - mikeash 12y ago
      You'd think that by now the poor user experience would trump the extra profit. Apple's reputation is built on "it just works", and 16GB of storage is starting to fail that all by itself.
- ececconi 12y ago
  Can you use iTunes to load it onto your device if you don't have the extra space on your device (without deleting apps)? I know this is harder than just pressing update on the device itself. I remember before you had to update your device only using iTunes right?
  - snowwrestler 12y ago
    Yes, this is the way to upgrade without clearing space on the device.
Scuds 12y ago
I had to downgrade from 8 to 7 on my 4s due to to thing like safari freezing when typing on the keyboard. But at the scale Apple works at, jailbreakers are probably %0.01 of the userbase. My guess is that people don't care enough to hit that upgrade button.
- xenophonf 12y ago
  Honestly, that plus problems with the OTA update process makes the most sense to me. I'm curious---how did you downgrade your 4S? I thought that things like Tiny Umbrella didn't work with the 4S and newer, even if one saves the SHSH (or whatever it's called).
  - Scuds 12y ago
    Eh... downloaded the ios 7.x file from Apple's servers and updated through itunes through the dialog where you specify the file. IOS wasn't stable afterwards, and I had to do a complete wipe, but it's back to where it was before.

twoodfin 12y ago

I think the disaster that was 8.0.1 prevented a lot of what would normally have been the second wave of upgrades. People heard "iOS update bricks your phone!" and didn't do what the little upgrade popup suggested, even after 8.0.2 resolved the issue. There are also a lot of 4S phones out there, and quite a bit of press around the launch that advised people on 4S's not to upgrade.

joosters 12y ago
I didn't upgrade my 4S, based solely upon Ars Technica's advice regarding the slowdown. Since then, I've weakened and bought an iPhone 6... so I guess I'll use 'Not upgraded to iOS 8' as a selling point when I flog the old phone on eBay :)

praseodym 12y ago

Most likely because iOS8 requires you to have heaps of storage space available for an OTA update; http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ios_8_storage_space http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ios_8_storage_space

colinramsay 12y ago

Daring Fireball touched on this - apparently one reason that people didn't upgrade is because they didn't have enough spare space on their device to complete the install. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4431 http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4431

mikeash 12y ago
It's a major problem. iOS 8 demands something like 5GB of free space. The existing OS takes up maybe 4GB, so on your 16GB device, you can't upgrade if you're using more than 7GB or so. Not even half! It's still possible to upgrade using a computer, but how many people even know you can do that anymore? The days of syncing with iTunes are long gone.
- TillE 12y ago
  I know why they keep offering 16GB devices as the baseline (easy upsell), but it's got to be a lousy user experience for people who do buy them. Just installing iWork and GarageBand will eat up a huge chunk of that.
  - mikeash 12y ago
    You'd think that by now the poor user experience would trump the extra profit. Apple's reputation is built on "it just works", and 16GB of storage is starting to fail that all by itself.
ececconi 12y ago
Can you use iTunes to load it onto your device if you don't have the extra space on your device (without deleting apps)? I know this is harder than just pressing update on the device itself. I remember before you had to update your device only using iTunes right?
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  Yes, this is the way to upgrade without clearing space on the device.

Scuds 12y ago

I had to downgrade from 8 to 7 on my 4s due to to thing like safari freezing when typing on the keyboard. But at the scale Apple works at, jailbreakers are probably %0.01 of the userbase. My guess is that people don't care enough to hit that upgrade button.

xenophonf 12y ago
Honestly, that plus problems with the OTA update process makes the most sense to me. I'm curious---how did you downgrade your 4S? I thought that things like Tiny Umbrella didn't work with the 4S and newer, even if one saves the SHSH (or whatever it's called).
- Scuds 12y ago
  Eh... downloaded the ios 7.x file from Apple's servers and updated through itunes through the dialog where you specify the file. IOS wasn't stable afterwards, and I had to do a complete wipe, but it's back to where it was before.