[egb]

While [1] may be true, many people never upgrade their iOS.

My stats are such that 8% of my users are using < iOS 4.3, and of that 8% slice almost 3/4 (or 6% of my total users) _could_ update to something newer, but they're happily running old iOSes.

If I were to cut them off, would that magically make them upgrade? I don't think so. They'd just be bummed that their apps stopped working.

[MattRogish]

"If I were to cut them off, would that magically make them upgrade? I don't think so. They'd just be bummed that their apps stopped working."

Remember, the problem listed will only take effect if:

* Their iTunes has downloaded the latest version, and

* They have to restore their device from a backup

Doing an update to your app to remove iOS3 compat won't remove it from folks' devices, iTunes won't push it to their device, and it won't magically stop working. Seems like such a small thing to worry about, especially given all the cool things in iOS4 and above...

[roc]

It's worth remembering that many, many people experienced horrible performance problems on the iPhone3G under iOS4.

It's entirely possible that your 8% of users avoiding 4.3 despite its availability aren't tech-newbs, but are making a conscious effort to not update their OS.

In which case nothing short of "finally decided to get a new phone" is going to get them to upgrade.

[coin]

Many people can't upgrade their iOS because Apple doesn't support it. Example: my second generation iPod Touch is stuck at iOS 4.2.

[rendezvouscp]

I don’t think that would magically make them upgrade either, although they might be willing to do so since the only thing we can do is not upgrade our apps to support them.

Obviously this will vary from app to app, but I’m surprised that you have such a high number of users with an older version of iOS. Is that across all of your apps/games?

[objclxt]

I can collaborate that data somewhat - across the US apps I have access to stats for (a sizeable number of users) I see a similar figure (~6.5%) running iOS 4.3 and lower.

However, only 0.7% of devices are iPhone 3G and lower, so the majority of users I see running <4.3 are not updating out of choice.

This is all anecdotal, though - figures will vary dramatically across apps/demographics/etc.

[egb]

It's from my most popular app (game), but they're all similar in terms of audience.

[clarky07]

What time period are these stats from? Last week, last month, last year? I have <4% of my users on anything < iOS 5. I only have 1.3% using < 4.3 over the last month.

[egb]

They are my "active" users as defined by Flurry - not sure what that window is.

[cube13]

Has that number changed much over time? The iPhone 3 hasn't been for sale for over 2 years at this point, so I'm curious if you're seeing the number go down at all.

[jetti]

Not everybody can afford a new iPhone and buying one second hand is a way for people who can't afford a new one to get one. It is entirely possible that those number stay right around where they are at because of 2nd hand users.

[tobyjsullivan]

What are you referring to when you say the iPhone 3? I'm assuming a typo but not sure if you meant the iPhone 4 (on sale for 2 years) or the iPhone 3GS (on sale for 3 years and oldest version to support iOS 4.3 and up).

[cube13]

I mean the iPhone 3G.