New features are giving iPhone users more of an incentive to install iOS 14

Apple is reporting that 72% of all its compatible devices are running a version of iOS 14. An even higher 81% of compatible Apple devices unveiled over the last four years are indeed using a version of iOS 14. Adoption rates are higher than the ones generated by last year's iOS 13. The report, published by Apple on its Developer support page, reveals that besides the 72% of Apple devices powered by the latest iOS build, 18% of Apple devices are running last year's iOS 13. So if you remember how to use your fingers and toes, you'll be able to calculate that 10% of Apple's iOS devices are powered by a version of the operating system that is older than 2019's iOS 13.

For example, it wasn't until February of this year that iOS 13 hit the adoption rate of 70% making it more than a month slower to hit that mark than iOS 14. But the latter includes some exciting features such as Android-styled widgets, picture-in-picture capabilities, and the App Library which makes it easier to find a needle (the app you're searching for) in a haystack (the 200+ icons on your device all the same size and many with the same colors). In other words, this year's build of iOS gives users some nice incentives for installing it ASAP.

Apple dropped the original build of iPadOS, its iOS based operating system for the iPad tablets, on September 30th of last year. So far, iPad users haven't adopted the dedicated tablet operating system at the same rate as iOS. The current adoption rate for iPadOS is 61%. The reason for this could be due to the slower rate at which iPad users upgrade their tablet to a newer model.

To upgrade your iPhone or iPad to the most recent version of iOS or iPadOS, go to Settings > General > Software Update. The data used in this article came from the App Store and is dated December 15th.