[captain-asshat]

I'm sorry but users aren't going to upgrade to iOS 5 for the same reasons they haven't upgraded in the past: they just dont care.

Unless a user is actually frustrated with something, they won't bother investigating how to fix it. Most of the time they probably won't even know there IS a fix unless someone tells them.

Users aren't going to want to use an iOS only messaging service, and they certainly won't want to use two different services depending on who they're messaging. This has already happened before with FaceTime; some people used it and found it interesting but there was no mass appeal because not everyone has an iOS device.

[zephjc]

Is it that they don't care, or that they don't even know to do it at all? It seems to me that having an iPhone popup occur occasionally when an OS update is ready with

    [Remind later] [Dismiss]

buttons would be a good way to get more users to do it. The first button takes the user to a page with instructions on how to connect, upgrade, sync etc. The Dismiss button would full dismiss it for that OS upgrade. They would see the popup again for the next version.

I guess it's moot with iOS5 coming though.

A good lesson for everyone: users are lazy and apathetic to your changes - sometimes you have to force the changes down their throats for their own good.

[rimantas]

  > I'm sorry but users aren't going to upgrade to iOS 5 for
  > the same reasons they haven't upgraded in the past: they
  > just dont care.

What are you talking about? http://www.macpost.net/221/apple-ios-distribution-stats-95-o...

[Wilya]

The article points to http://onefps.net/post/6496478249/50-percent-of-iphone-owner... which tells a somewhat different story.

One article sources "A little bird" and the other its own customer base. I wouldn't take neither as a definitive answer..

[rimantas]

There is one more: http://www.marco.org/2011/03/24/ios-device-and-os-version-st...

[smackfu]

The stat people want to know is "Percentage of devices that shipped with iOS 3 that haven't upgraded to iOS 4". Grouping all the phones together doesn't answer that, since the iPhone 4 with iOS 4 will clearly be a big chunk that proves nothing about upgrade percentage.

[omaranto]

Doesn't iTunes offer to update your iPhone automatically (whenever the iPhone is connected and there is an update available)? I would guess plenty of people just click OK.

[sapphirecat]

It does, but then it downloads some CD-sized thing, which you can cancel at any point.

I have clicked update once. After slowly fetching the update, the download was corrupt, and iTunes wanted to pull the entire thing down again. Slowly, of course. So I canceled, and haven't accepted any updates since, but iOS 5 might be worth trying again.

[jackvalentine]

iOS5 will be worth trying again if only for the reason that it (finally) brings incremental updates. No more 900mb beasts, after the initial update.

[lloeki]

"whenever the iPhone is connected": many don't, at all, ever.

[omaranto]

Sure some people don't ever connect it, but is it a large percentage? I imagine most people (1) have some digital music on their computers, (2) want to listen to it from their iPhones, (3) use iTunes to copy it over.

Of course someone might (a) not listen to music on their iPhone, or (b) buy music from iTunes directly from the iPhone, or (c) copy music to the iPhone using something other than iTunes; but I imagine none of these things are very common.

I have absolutely no data, I'm just guessing and would love to hear from anyone that does have data about this.

[rodion_89]

Here's the thing, Apple will throw out a new iPhone model that will have iOS 5 by default. That's huge! People flock to get the new iPhone every time they come out with one.

Another thing is that if you use a Mac and want to use iCloud you're going to have to upgrade that phone (and Desktop) OS. I think many people will be keen on doing so.

[Kylekramer]

While I agree there will be tons of people upgrading via hardware, this article is specifically about making users update their old phones with the genius of iMessage. I have to disagree with that premise. iMessage will be big, but only through nerds who will update and new phones.