Nice: iOS 16's slow adoption rate hits 69% in December

According to the data, the turning point of the adoption spread between iOS 15 and iOS 16 was between November 7 and November 14, and ever since iOS 16 has enjoyed a steady increase in its adoption rate. Currently, iOS 16 is found on nearly 70% of all iPhones, while iOS 15 is still running on some 24.5% of all iPhones. 6.14% of all Apple phones are still running an older version of iOS, says Mixpanel. 

Comparing iOS 16 with previous iOS adoption rates, it's pretty much similar to how quickly iOS 15 found its way to users' devices, but way, way slower than iOS 14, which was found on nearly 80% of iPhones for the comparable time period back in 2020.

The seemingly slower adoption rate of iOS in recent years can possibly be attributed to many users' reluctance to update right away. Many choose to wait and see if the latest version of a OS will be stable enough and lack any severe bugs and flaws, even despite the multitude of personalization improvements introduced with iOS 16. Undoubtedly, many have put off updating for as long as they can, waiting for positive feedback from their friends and peers. While recent iOS updates haven't been as rocky as some earlier ones (like the rather ill-fated iOS 7, iOS 11, and iOS 13), a sense of uncertainty seems to still linger when an yearly software update is released for the iPhone.