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Tim Cook says users are updating to iOS 18.1 at twice the rate of iOS 17.1

Tim Cook and the Apple Intelligence icon -- image credit: Apple

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Tim Cook has revealed that the adoption rate of iOS 18.1 is far faster than it was for iOS 17.1 at the same time in 2023.

Just ahead of its latest earnings call, Tim Cook has announced that the first indications of Apple Intelligence's success have come from the increased rate of updates.

"A really early stat, which is only three days worth of data," he told CNBC, "but users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate that they adopted 17.1 in the year ago quarter."

"It's a combination that 15 was stronger than 14 in the year... and 16 was stronger than 15," he continued. "Plus, keep in mind that the 15 Pro and Pro Max also run Apple Intelligence."

So Cook is at least suggesting that Apple Intelligence is prompting updates from both new iPhone 16 users and people remaining on the 2023 Pro models.

He gave no further detail, and it's not clear whether the increased adoption rate is global, or solely in the US. So far Apple Intelligence has only been released to the public in the US, where it came out on October 28, 2024.

Cook has also not mentioned adoption figures for the Mac. Apple Intelligence was released for US users of macOS Sequoia on the same day.



7 Comments

teejay2012 13 Years · 412 comments

I have an iPhone 15. Some nice small tweaks but I can't see a compelling reason to upgrade given the lack of AI capacity. I should have bought the Pro  ) :

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
DAalseth 7 Years · 3082 comments

Was going to hold off on my Mac, AI doesn’t interest me. but 15.0.0 and 15.0.1 had some significant networking issues with Remote Desktops, etc., so I kinda had to. 

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mpantone 19 Years · 2266 comments

DAalseth said:
Was going to hold off on my Mac, AI doesn’t interest me. but 15.0.0 and 15.0.1 had some significant networking issues with Remote Desktops, etc., so I kinda had to. 

My Mac mini M2 Pro is on Sonoma 14.7.1. I'll upgrade to Sequoia in June 2025, a week before WWDC. That guarantees that the operating system will be stable.

Likewise my iPhone 12 mini is on iOS 17.7.1. Again, I will upgrade that to iOS 18.x in June. Stability is far more important to me than fresh, steaming hot Cupertino dogchow.

Apple's software QA started sliding 10 years ago and I started delaying upgrades later and later each year. It has nothing to do with any aversion to Apple Intelligence.

Of course, both devices were upgraded to their current OSes this past June.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
80025 15 Years · 182 comments

Updated my iphone SE 3. All went well, turned off for the night. Next morning would not recognize my Passcode. After multiple attempts, and the wait 1 hr, wait 3 hrs, wait 8 hours, iPhone is “UNAVAILABLE”. Option for Emergency Calls, but none for “Forgot Passcode”. And yes, this is the exact same Passcode I have been using since before the 18.1 update. So now am without an iPhone and no idea how to fix this Apple snafu.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
JP144 1 Year · 8 comments

Tim Cook says users are updating to iOS 18.1 at twice the rate of iOS 17.1… only to find half the features they updated for don’t work on the device they own. 

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes