Over 4 million people participate in Apple's software beta programs

Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals that an extraordinarily large number of people are taking part in the company's beta program, which covers early versions of iOS, macOS and the company's other major operating systems.

In an investor conference call following Apple's release of fiscal quarter three earnings on Thursday, Cook said some four million people are running beta software on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV devices.

"In June, we hosted an extremely successful developers conference that previewed many major advances coming this fall to our four operating systems: iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS," Cook said. "Developer and customer reaction has been very positive and we have over four million users participating in our new OS beta programs."

The number of beta program participants is not something that Apple typically releases, so it's unclear how that number compares to past years. Also unknown is how the participation statistics break down by operating system, and whether developers are included in the number.

Apple frequently touts both the growth of the App Store and its contributions to the app development profession as a whole, so it's a good guess that the four million figure for software beta participants in one year is among the largest ever for Apple, if not for the history of computing altogether.

At WWDC, Apple unveiled iOS 12, Mac OS 10.14, watchOS 5 and TV OS 12, and has periodically released beta editions of each in the weeks since. The full releases are scheduled for this fall.

15 Comments

melgross 33607 comments · 20 Years

About 6 years ago

and I can tell you, that it’s not a good thing for everyone.

bobolicious 1173 comments · 10 Years

...and hopefully Apple will continue to release new hardware before any next MacOS ships so those wanting stability will be able to use a more refined almost year old operating system and get Applecare support for such... Is it still a very narrow window of efficacy...?

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

melgross said:

and I can tell you, that it’s not a good thing for everyone.

'Everyone' is always a large concept isn't it?

Seriously though it is a pretty good state of affairs compared the the diametric opposite on the iOS rip off AKA Android where no one seems to update let alone jump at the opportunity to play with the next great thing albeit in beta as soon as they can. I also suspect those participating are not complete morons and either dual boot or have backups. After doing this since the very first Mac OSX beta I have to say the stability of betas has been phenomenal. I found going back to OS 9 even after the very rudimentary OSX beta was starkly shocking to say the least. I think macOS Mojave has been as good as the rest in that respect. I suspect the introduction of APFS around the same time is probably making it seem scarier than most betas.