Is iOS 9 really that popular and is it crashing your iPhone 6s?

We all know that Apple always appears to be the popular kid in class. Recent reports from Apple shows that iOS 9 saw the fastest adoption rate ever for a new release of its iOS smartphone operating system. That makes sense on first reading considering users had plenty of motivation to grab the update quickly – bugs in older systems as well as improvements to the download process. But is all as it seems?

Independent mobile-metrics firms are now questioning the validity of these results and, If they’re right, then the latest version of the mobile operating system may not have quite the reach Apple would have us believe.

Apple proudly announced that “more than 50% of devices [are] already using iOS 9.”

The company based its statement on a headcount conducted through the App Store on September 19th.

This announcement motivated mobile analytics firm Crittercism to spring in to action. CEO Andrew Levy told ReadWrite:

This conflicts with our data as well as two other data sources,”

When Crittercism ran the numbers, it found a large disparity between its findings and Apple’s, as well as those of two other sources. Crittercism and Fiksu, which measured iOS 9 adoption on September 19th, discovered that it only reached 23% of sampled devices. Data from Mixpanel came in at a little higher, but at 29%, it’s still a far cry from the “more than 50%” Apple-based boast.

Crittercism created a chart showing its metrics, including a forecast for future adoption.

Crittercism says that there could be a number of reasons for this discrepancy, including the possibility that Apple only measured certain devices or specific geographies.

Saying that might be a little too kind as the overall feeling is that the large discrepancy is down to a basic flaw in Apple’s methodology.

Apple’s press release states that the metric comes from the App Store and if we consider that just for a moment things start to fall in to place.

You see, the majority of people have mostly stopped downloading new apps as they have the ones they want and have been using them for some time. So a sample from the App Store could well be skewed towards people who are likely to update their phones with new apps regularly and therefore new operating systems. Basically, these are active downloaders.

Still, iOS 9 adoption has obviously improved over the rate of upgrading from iOS 7 to iOS 8. This version also appears more stable – well apart from a number of iPhone 6s units apparently shutting off randomly. More on that in a bit.

Five days after the iOS 8 release, the crash rate stood at 3.3%,” Levy said, “while for iOS 9 we’re currently seeing a crash rate of 2.2%.”

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus demand regular breaks

Reports are now coming through of the new iPhones randomly shutting off for no apparent reason and no one seems to have a cause as of yet.

The bug appears to occur randomly, even when there’s plenty of battery life available and the iPhone 6s is left unattended. Are they just seeking attention because, well Apple?

Some users have added that they have a warm home button. As nice as that might sound, this could potentially point to an overheating issue which in turn causes the handset to turn off to prevent any internal damage.

That’s just one theory for now however, and it hasn’t been confirmed nor denied by any experts, or Apple itself.

Currently, reports indicate that the only way to revive an iPhone that’s decided to have an unplanned nap, is to hold the power and home buttons down for around ten seconds.

Could this be a bug in iOS 9 or perhaps a more troubling issue? This all remains to be seen. It is also worth noting that some iPhone 6 users are also having issues which also supports the iOS 9 bug theory.

Is your iPhone suddenly needing a quick disco nap? Let me know.