Apple released iOS 6.1.1 as an over-the-air upgrade on February 11th, 2013 – a mere two weeks after the release of iOS 6.1. The quick turnaround for this latest release was due to problems encountered by some iPhone 4S users regarding cellular connectivity and accessing Microsoft Exchange over their devices. With the latest update only going out to those iPhone 4S users, Chitika Insights examined how iOS 6.1.1’s release impacts the overall distribution of iOS traffic in North America.
UPDATE (2/13/13 at 5:00pm ET): In order to provide some additional perspective as to iOS 6.1.1’s impact on the iPhone ecosystem in North America, Chitika Insights has generated the below graph. Using the same data set of millions of mobile ad impressions from the Chitika network, this graph represents the iOS version distribution amongst North American iPhone Web traffic, in particular.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Apple released iOS 6.1.1 as an over-the-air upgrade on February 11th, 2013 – a mere two weeks after the release of iOS 6.1. The quick turnaround for this latest release was due to problems encountered by some iPhone 4S users regarding cellular connectivity and accessing Microsoft Exchange over their devices. With the latest update only going out to those iPhone 4S users, Chitika Insights examined how iOS 6.1.1’s release impacts the overall distribution of iOS traffic in North America.
To quantify this study, Chitika Insights took a sample of millions of iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch mobile ad impressions originating from the Chitika Ad Network. This data set is composed of 24-hours’ worth of impressions observed through February 12th, 2013, originating from the U.S. and Canada. A user agent analysis was conducted to identify the iOS version in use from each iOS device impression. A graph depicting the current North American iOS version distribution can be seen below:
As seen in the graph above, iOS 6.1.1 accounts for 1.4% of all North American iOS impressions slightly 24 hours following its debut. While the new operating system’s limited scope of release narrows its impact on overall iOS distribution, all iOS 6 users (which include iOS 6.0, 6.1, and 6.1.1) now command 83.1% of all iOS Web traffic continentally. To give this number some perspective, consider that Google’s own statistics show that, globally, 42.6% of Android users are on Android version 4.0 or above. As both mobile operating systems are able to migrate more of their respective users over to the latest OS version, online marketers are better able to confidently take advantage of more dynamic functionality on a much wider scale.