iOS 7 was released to the public at midnight West Indonesia Time on Thursday and within 12 hours it has reached 25 percent of the installed base of iOS devices according to data from Mixpanel. While Apple said that it is set to have sold 700 million iOS devices in October, not all of them will be able to run iOS 7. Breaking with its past tradition, the company has allowed consumers to download the last compatible versions of apps if they cannot use iOS 7.
Previously, if an app has been updated to drop support for older iOS versions, users of those older iOS versions will not be able to download that particular app any longer. The only way for them to have access to the app was if they still had it installed on their devices or have it stored in iTunes.
By allowing downloads of the last compatible version, users of older iOS versions will now be able to download a greater range of apps that were previously not accessible to them, extending the usefulness of those older devices.
However, when it comes to apps that are linked to certain services, it’s very likely that those older versions will no longer work anyway due to certain security requirements and changes in how the apps interface with the services. Twitter, for example, has removed access to applications which do not conform to its latest API version. This means older versions of Twitter apps such as Tweetbot, Echofon, Twitterrific, along with many other legacy Twitter apps, will not be functional.
Apps that deal with banking, financial services, or airline bookings are also among those that require the very latest versions to be functional as they regularly update their security access and interfaces. The app for American Airlines for example no longer works with iOS 6 as it has been rebuilt entirely for iOS 7. Even The New York Times iPad app has dropped support for iOS 6.
During WWDC in June, Apple claimed that up to 90 percent of its devices have been updated to iOS 6. Within one week of the launch of iOS 6 back in 2012, 100 million of its devices had been updated to the latest version. A similar pattern is developing for iOS 7 as the adoption is about to reach 30 percent in under 24 hours according to numbers by Mixpanel. At over 600 million devices, even a 25 percent adoption means 150 million devices.
Until recently Apple was still selling iPhone 3GS and 4th generation iPod touch, devices which do not support iOS 7, in certain markets. With a rapid adoption of iOS 7 looming, and developers electing to go exclusively on iOS 7 for their latest apps, this decision to allow older apps to be downloaded on older devices will go some ways to reduce any possible buyer’s remorse for buyers of those older devices.
