Summary

Gruber presents Apple's official iOS 26 adoption statistics, showing they're consistent with iOS 17 and 18 rates from previous years. He uses these numbers to vindicate his earlier argument that reports of abnormally low iOS 26 adoption were based on bogus StatCounter data. The real explanation was that Apple was simply slower to push automatic updates for iOS 26, which he attributes to it being a more significant and buggier release. He emphasizes that most users update via automatic pushes from Apple, so adoption rates reflect Apple's rollout schedule, not user sentiment about Liquid Glass or iOS 26's quality.

Key Insight

iOS adoption rates are driven by Apple's automatic update rollout schedule, not user enthusiasm, making third-party adoption estimates unreliable and adoption numbers uninformative about user sentiment.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 5

  Their opinions about iOS 26 form after they install it.

• 4

  A large majority of users of all Apple devices get major OS updates when, and only when, their devices automatically update.

• 5

  Apple has been slower to push those updates to iOS 26 than they have been for previous iOS updates in recent years. With good reason! iOS 26 is a more significant — and buggier — update than iOS 18 and 17 were.

• 4

  There's no conclusion that should be drawn from this about the general opinion of the Liquid Glass UI design or iOS 26 overall.

• 4

  People may love it, hate it, be ambivalent about it, or not even notice — but most of them let their iPhones (and iPads) update via automatic upgrades pushed by Apple.

• 3

  Via the Internet Archive (seriously, what would we do without them?)

Tone

vindicated, analytical