By January 2025, iOS 18 appeared to be ahead of its predecessor, reaching 76% of all compatible iPhones a month before iOS 17 did the year before. Users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate that they adopted 17.1 in the year ago quarter. Apple says that iOS 18 is currently installed on 82% of all compatible iPhones. In announcing that figure, Apple said that this adoption rate is down to its users being aware of the benefits of updating, plus how simple the company has made it to update. Comparing Apple’s own figures from the last ten years, however, iOS 18 comes in at just under the average of 83.2%. In the last decade, iOS 14 saw the highest adoption rate with 90%. Then iOS 17 scored the lowest with 77%. since 2019, the company has separately recorded the iOS adoption rate for iPhones released in the previous four years.It’s not clear why it introduced this, or why it chose four years, but the figures do not materially help iOS 18’s case.Using only this last-four-years data from Apple in 2019, the average adoption rate is 87.9%. That means iOS 18’s figure of 88% is just 0.1% above the average.The minimum adoption rate during this period and for this range of iPhones is 85%, which was achieved by both iOS 12 and iOS 14. The maximum was 92% for iOS 13. Overall, iOS adoption rate for all compatible devices is reasonably steady, having never fallen below 77% in the last ten years, and never rising above 90%.