iOS 8 adoption slows after almost reaching 70 per cent

Apple's iOS 8 operating system is running on 69 per cent of devices, but it's increasing at a snail's pace in comparison to take-up of iOS 7.

iOS 7 is used on 28 per cent of devices, although updates to the new operating system have slowed down considerably in recent weeks. Older versions of the software accounted for just three per cent on devices.

Adoption of Apple's latest mobile operating system has risen just 1 per cent since January 5 according to the latest stats.

Back in November 2014, it was reported that iOS 8 adoption had been markedly slower than that of iOS 7 before it, with just 56 per cent of Apple devices running it after two months.

Apple's figures are based upon devices accessing the App Store. Even though they don't necessarily offer the full picture of iOS 8 user habits, they echo the findings of mobile analytics company Mixpanel, which said iOS 8 had a 58 per cent market share and iOS 7 had 38 per cent.

Some of the reasons for the slow up-take could be that only a limited number of iPhone users are able to install the software because it's such a large update. Many 8GB iPhone 5C users, for example, complained that there wasn't enough space to install the update, while those with larger-capacity handsets said they had to delete a lot of the content before downloading it.

Other reasons could be that those who did upgrade when it first came out on 17 September had massive issues installing it.

Apple was forced to issue bug fixes related to cellular network, customers being locked out of their device, the Touch ID fingerprint reader failing to work as expected and incompatibility with apps including Dropbox.

Apple also blocked users from reinstalling iOS 7, meaning once they'd upgraded, they were unable to downgrade again.

Apple issued iOS 8.1.1 to developers for bug testing before rolling it out to the masses. The beta is included improvements on performance and even more bug fixes.