Apple’s upgrade rates destroy Android: iOS 7 now runs on 85% of iDevices

A whopping 85 percent of all Apple’s mobile devices run the latest version of its operating system, iOS 7, the company announced today on its developer site.

Apple commonly sees quick operating system adoption following major updates, a trend encouraged by the fact that Apple builds its own hardware and operates a closed software ecosystem.

Google’s more open Android OS sees comparatively dismal upgrade ratesndespite its widespread use. Kitkat, Google’s latest major Android update, runs on just 2.5 percent of Android devices in spite of its October 2013 release date.

The most commonly used Android OS, according to Google’s developer site, is the first release of Jelly Bean (from back in July 2012) at an adoption rate of 35.3 percent.

Apple’s latest minor update, iOS 7.1, reached 21 percent adoption rates in just three days.

At its core, Apple runs a very different business from Google’s. Google’s market share of Android is significantly higher than iOS due to the adoption of Android by third-party device manufacturers. In other words, you can buy an iPhone from Apple, but you can by an Android from just about any company.

Clearly, Google’s model helped make Android an industry standard. As a result, however, slow upgrade rates continuously create a difficult situation for developers looking to build the latest and greatest apps. Similarly, it takes quite a while for cutting edge Android updates to reach the masses.