As for Android, Google has not updated its Android dashboard since May 2019, so we don’t have numbers for Android 10, but I would not expect Android 10 be anywhere close to iOS 13’s fifty percent mark. May’s numbers pegged Android 9 at 10.4 percent some nine months after its public launch.

That might not be a fair comparison due to the differing business models, but it highlights Apple’s success in keeping control of its own smaller system so it can distribute the updates directly to the iPhone user base. Once Google updates Android it has to roll out to each manufacturer, then each manufacturer has to apply its own customisations and user interface changes, roll them out internally to all their SKU’s, then check each carrier variant, then start a regional roll out alongside a carrier rollout.

Countering that is Android’s monthly updates that include bug fixes and security patches for devices, which keep devices secure and bug free, but this doesn’t include the major updates to the OS itself.

Apple has a much easier time. There are far fewer variants of the iPhone, and everyone is addressing the same UI. And with a direct relationship to each owner the roll-out has much less digital lag in the supply chain.

That’s why Apple can hit more than half of the recent iPhone purchases with the new OS… which helps immensely when dealing with some significant issues as iOS 13 rolls out (five updates and counting as of publication), so it’s not been plain sailing.

But there’s going to be a happy team in Cupertino looking at these numbers.

The full details can be found on Apple’s support page for developers.

Now read more about Apple’s plans to re-launch the iPhone SE in 2020…