One month later, iOS 6 adoption surpasses 60%, stabilizing but still growing

Adoption of the newest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 6, is starting to slow down, but for good reason. One month after its release, 61 percent of iOS users have upgraded to the latest and greatest from Cupertino. While this is great news for Apple, it’s even better for third-party iOS app developers who want to take advantages of new features in the operating system.

The latest numbers come from Chitika, which says it took a sample of “hundreds of millions of mobile ad impressions” from its advertising network. The timeframe was exactly one month: from September 19, the day iOS 6 was released, to October 19.

Chitika first said iOS 6 achieved a 15 percent share of all iOS traffic in its first 24 hours, some 25 percent after 48 hours of availability, and over 50 percent after only two weeks. It appears that adoption is starting to stabilize now, but that’s to be expected as users have now had over a month to decide if they want to upgrade or not.

These are of course just estimates, and as you can see in the graph above, they’re limited to the US and Canada. Still, they give a decent ballpark estimate for what to expect. Last month, Apple said its official numbers pointed to almost 25 percent of all iOS devices ever sold running version 6. That was less than a week after release, so we can therefore expect that the real adoption numbers are indeed over 50 percent, at the very least.

As Apple continues to keep selling iOS devices, the percentage will of course continue to grow. In fact, we can expect a big boost to come this month and next as the rumored iPad mini, which is expected to be announced tomorrow, goes on sale.

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Image credit: bschwehn