Apple says 74% of iPhones launched in the last four years and 66% of all iPhones are running iOS 26; 68% of iPhones were running iOS 18 as of Jan. 21, 2025
Apple has shared updated iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures, revealing how many iPhones and iPads are running those software versions.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s figures provide a first-party benchmark after third-party January estimates put iOS 26 adoption near 50%, creating a materially different picture of the installed base. The split between recent iPhones (74%) and all iPhones (66%) also shows that older devices remain the main source of version fragmentation.
The report sits in a continuing adoption cycle: Apple later reported higher iOS 26 penetration by June, indicating that rollout progress continued beyond the initial post-release period.
First-order effects
- Developers can treat iOS 26 as the primary target for a majority of active iPhones, while maintaining support for a substantial older-version population.
- Apple gains a clearer basis for prioritizing current-platform features and services across iPhone and iPad software.
Second-order effects
- App makers and service providers face a narrower trade-off between adopting iOS 26-specific capabilities and preserving experiences for users who have not updated.
- The gap between newer and older iPhone cohorts makes device age, rather than just overall adoption, more important in product testing and support planning.
Third-order effects
- If first-party adoption reporting continues to outpace external measurements, platform participants may increasingly rely on Apple’s figures for release planning while treating third-party estimates as incomplete signals.
- The pattern points toward software-version support becoming more tiered across the iPhone base, with current features reaching newer devices sooner than the full installed base.
The trend: Mobile platforms are managing a large installed base through increasingly tiered software adoption, balancing rapid uptake on recent hardware against long-tail support for older devices.