Why Adoption Rates For Apple Inc.'s iOS 8 Have Slowed Down

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iOS 8 was Apple Inc.'s ( AAPL) eighth major mobile operating system. With its release, the company increased focused on refining and enhancing built-in features and functionality, instead of relying on a major overhaul of user interface as with the iOS 7. With iOS 8, Apple incorporated user feedback received from iOS 7 users and developers.

Previously, Apple had kept the operating system (OS) closed to developers, not providing access to key areas such as keyboards, notification center, and default Photos app. However, with iOS 8's release, the company has followed open-source nature of competitors such as Google ( GOOGL), while retaining quality control to ensure seamless usage experience.

The company reported an initial adoption rate of 46% for iOS 8 on September 21. It has since struggled with numerous bugs and glitches, making users hesitant in switching to the latest firmware.

There have been complaints of poor battery performance, sudden app-crash, and faulty HealthKit, causing third-party health apps to malfunction. Reports came in suggesting that iOS 8 apps were crashing 78% more than its predecessor.

Apple moved swiftly to counter the bugs and other flaws, but the subsequent update, 8.0.1, failed miserably. Instead of fixing existing issues, it created further glitches within the OS, with many users complaining about losing cellular-network connectivity. Apple pulled the update from its servers the very next day and issued an apology to users, allowing them to switch back to iOS 8.0 version.

Usually, Apple's update-release cycle consists of firmware updates being rolled out after a few months; but considering the latest update's poor performance, the company released iOS 8.0.2 the very next day. The latest update managed to fix issues with Health app, HealthKit platform, third-party keyboards, Wi-Fi connectivity and battery drain problems.

While issues plaguing users since updating to iOS 8 have been resolved and iOS 8.0.2 has proved to be a stable release, the damage has already been done as revealed by the company's latest figures, which show a mere 1% increase in adoption rate since the new update's release.

This stagnation demonstrates how Apple mishandled iOS 8's rollout strategy. Bugs and glitches are common place for OS's as similar issues were also faced by Google Inc's ( GOOGL) Android OS. But Apple's first foray into a more open software infrastructure has caused it problems, as it tries to adjust to the new system of working with developers.

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