iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to come to Apple retail stores Friday, Sept. 25; iOS 9 sees fastest adoption, now on over 50% of devices
iPhone 6s & iPhone 6s Plus Arrive on Friday, September 25 — Fastest iOS Adoption Ever with iOS 9 — Apple® today announced iPhone® 6s and iPhone 6s Plus …
Context & Ripple Effects
This announcement is the opening beat of what became Apple's strongest launch cycle to date: a week later the company reported a record 13M-unit opening weekend for the 6s and 6s Plus, and by mid-October the rollout had widened into a second-wave launch across 40 countries. The other half of the story is software — iOS 9 crossing 50% of devices faster than any prior release meant new hardware shipped into an installed base that was already current.
First-order effects
- Buyers can pick up the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus at Apple retail stores on Friday, Sept. 25 rather than waiting on shipping, putting the phones in front of walk-in demand immediately.
- iOS 9's majority share means developers and app publishers are now building against an OS most of the installed base runs, not a fringe update.
Second-order effects
- The demand confirmed by the store launch carried directly into the record 13M opening weekend and forced the staggered 40-country second wave two weeks later, stretching supply and logistics across regions.
- With over half of devices on iOS 9 within days of launch, Apple's annual OS-release rhythm becomes a de facto feature baseline its rivals must match each fall.
Third-order effects
- The playbook visible here — synchronized store availability plus fast software adoption — is the one later cycles iterate on: the iPhone X's walk-in launch-day guidance and the shift toward online-only events like the September 7 iPhone 14 unveiling both refine the same launch cadence this release established.
The trend: Apple's iPhone launches have evolved from single-day store events into globally staged hardware-and-software rollouts, with adoption speed of the paired iOS version becoming part of the launch story itself.