Apple's iOS 12 installed on 80 percent of compatible devices

The figures, announced in an update to Apple's App Store support webpage, also show iOS 12 as installed on 83 percent of devices released during the last four years. As with past iOS versions, adoption rates of the current iteration operating system have enjoyed a steady upward trajectory since launch in September.

Usage of last 2017's iOS 11 is down to 12 percent, while older operating systems occupy a 5 percent share of devices released in the past four years and 8 percent of all compatible devices.

Apple's statistics were gleaned from App Store visits logged on Feb. 12, 2019.

The latest iOS 12 has seen comparatively rapid uptake over its lifetime. Adoption rates hit 53 percent less than a month after initial release, a number that jumped to 70 percent in December. By comparison, iOS 11 was installed on only 59 percent of devices in December 2017.

Third-party market research firms estimate even faster upgrade rates, with figures from Mixpanel putting iOS 12 adoption at 75 percent in late November.

Most recently, official statistics issued in January pegged adoption rates at 78 percent of devices released over the past four years and 75 percent of all devices.

Introduced alongside iPhone XS and XR in September, iOS 12 delivers a host of new features to customer smartphones and tablets, including powerful photography tools, a system to monitor and manage screen time, Group FaceTime, the ARKit 2 augmented reality platform, new Memoji characters and more. Perhaps helping to explain the year-over-year increase in adoption is Apple's focus on improved OS performance for older devices, a tentpole feature for iOS 12.

Apple continues to build on its latest OS release, with the current iOS 12.2 beta tipping a redesigned Remote interface for Control Center, Siri recommendation integration for Today at Apple sessions, UI tweaks in News and minor bug fixes.