Apple iOS 7.1 Adoption Rate Climbs To 18% Three Days After Release

On Monday, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) released the new iOS 7.1 firmware -- the most significant update to the iOS 7 platform since its launch last September -- and after three days the update has been installed on nearly 18 percent of all iOS devices in North America, according to a new report from Chitika Insights, ad network Chitika's research arm.

The latest statistics released by the Chitika showed that 72 hours after the release of iOS 7.1, 17.9 percent of all iOS traffic in North America was coming from devices running on the latest iOS version.

The report also said that if the current trend continues, the update is expected to overtake the previous iOS 7.0.6 update within a few days, despite the fact that iOS 7.1 is still generating a lion’s share of Web traffic, roughly doubling that of iOS 7.1, AppleInsider reported.

It is worth noting that the iOS 7.0.6 update had a 13.3 percent adoption rate only 48 hours after its release.

Following its roll-out on Monday, iOS 7.1 adoption rate touched 5.9 percent within 24 hours, while iOS 7.0.6 users generated 6 percent of total iOS traffic one day after release.

After 45 hours, iOS 7.1 devices generated 12 percent of total North American iOS Web traffic, roughly a doubling of the usage share observed within the earlier 24-hour study. This share growth is largely on par with that of iOS 7.0.6, which hit 13.3 percent 48 hours after its release.

As part of the study, Chitika examined tens of millions of U.S. and Canadian online ad impressions originating from iOS devices from March 9 through March 12.

iOS 7.1 includes many new features and improvements, such as important changes to the Touch ID fingerprint scanner and the user interface, the new CarPlay support, fixes for some lingering bugs, new manual setting for Siri and more.

Other additional tidbits include new camera settings to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s, iCloud Keychain support in additional countries, and new options to display button shapes, darken app colors and reduce white point to name a few.