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NB: This question has been extensively edited to make it more relevant, for completeness the original question maintained at the end.

What version(s) of iOS should my App support?

When building a new iOS app what a strategies should one use to determine what versions of the operating system to support? What practical considerations are there in supporting legacy OS version. Are there any reliable statistics to support the business case of dropping legacy support?

Original Question

If I build a new iOS application, should I support iOS versions prior to 5.0, or is that not necessary anymore? Is there any reliable and up to date data on iOS 5.0 adoption rates?

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rid
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6 Answers6

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iOS Support Matrix v3.0.1

This version is updated and includes iOS 7.1 and new iPads.

iOS Suport Matrix

Link: http://www.iossupportmatrix.com

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Richard Stelling
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According to this article: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/03/06/why-do-developers-prefer-ios-over-android-try-75-adoption-of-ios-5-while-ics-is-stuck-at-1/

the adoption rate of iOS5 has been very fast, at least when compared to Android ICS. You will always have users that are very slow to upgrade, however they seem to be the minority on iOS. If the numbers from the article are correct, you should be fine using iOS 5 for you app.

Jarle Hansen
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Look at statistics and judge for yourself if it is worth the effort.

For example:

from which I can read that < 11% are still using iOS 4.3

Or just search for e.g. "ios version stats", and try to find a web site that matches the target audience for your app.

Krumelur
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  • This is great! Exactly the kind of statistics I was looking for. But are they accurate? Does this company have highly popular apps on the App Store? – rid Mar 17 '12 at 16:07
  • As I wrote, you have to judge for yourself. There is probably no silver bullet, but judging from the top hits at google they all seem to indicate that adoption of a new version is pretty quick. – Krumelur Mar 17 '12 at 16:15
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    Make sure to think about when your app will be released, not what the stats are now. 11% on iOS 4.x right now maybe but what will the market look like when you release it. A month can mean the difference between 11% and 7%. Look at the rate of adoption as compared to iOS 4.0 from the articles mentioned in other answers and think about when abouts you're going to be releasing. – Jinyoung Kim Mar 17 '12 at 17:22
  • Check here for the official stats. https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/ – Mayank Sep 16 '15 at 10:32
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This depends a lot on your app. But I would recommend supporting only iOS 5.0 and later because:

  1. The new Xcode creates iOS 5.1 projects by default.
  2. The new Xcode doesn't include iOS 4.3 simulator by default.
  3. Apple has some iOS 5.0 only apps (like iTunes U).

So I guess, Apple is somehow pushing developers to support only the newer versions of the iOS.

Here is a good article that has some recent stats about iOS 5 adoption rates and good arguments on why to support only iOS 5 for new apps.

Here is another good article that discusses the question. Its conclusion is:

I think that both positions (support old, or support only new) are valid.

So it really depends on your special case. But personally, I'll currently support iOS 5.0 or later, unless there are solid reasons for a particular app.

sch
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  • Well, Apple *always* pushes for the latest versions, and I very much like that. Nevertheless, if despite Apple's efforts (giving away the new version for free, packing very attractive features for end users, etc), people still don't switch, then it would be rather unfortunate to have a product based on the latest which noone can run. But it does indeed appear that at least 75% of iOS devices are now >= iOS 5.0, so it seems that Apple's efforts did pay off. – rid Mar 17 '12 at 16:22
  • @sch: Hi, when you say it depends on your app - what do you mean? For example: it maybe that users of certain iOS version in my country are different as compared to global statistics? –  Aug 22 '13 at 09:33
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I asked the same question some time ago and did not get any good answer with respect to a reliable up-to-date source of statistic data. In the end it comes down to your target market.

People who do not update their os recently are not likely to buy apps in high volumes. So even if these devices exist, the fraction of potential customers amongst their owners is most likely much smaller. That makes it hard to justify the extra effort in providing iOS 5.0+ functionaltiy and same functionality for smaller iOS. On the other hand it may be suitable for you just to omit some functions for older iOS. That of course depends on the nature of the 5.0+ function that you want to use. Testing the curent os version and then deciding wether to call a function/method or not ist not that much of an effort. It needs to be tested though.

On the other hand there may be an interesting part of the user community that does consume apps but did not yet afford a brand new device. There is a number of devices around which cannot be migrated to iOS 5.x. And I personally would be interested in a) how many of these divices exist and b) how many of these are still in use.

If it is a new app then adressing older devices may not be justifyable. Unless of course you address some very special interest group and now for sure that the amount of oder devices is of a significant value.

Just some thoughts. Sorry that I did not have the statistics handy that you were looking for.

Hermann Klecker
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    Well, iOS >= 5.0 works on iPhones >= 3GS. 3GS is pretty old by now, and from what I understand it's given away for free in the US. It's also very cheap where I live. So it's unlikely for hardware to be a problem, more likely people who don't care about the OS or simply don't want to upgrade for whatever mysterious reason. From my research over the Internet, many people who don't want to upgrade say it's because there's no jailbreak available for 5.0. – rid Mar 17 '12 at 16:13
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In my opinion it depends on which features of iOS 5.0 you need... As example: in an application I need support for forward geocoding, available only in iOS 5.0 so I decided that the number of unsupported devices "cost" less then the effort to find a non apple library for forward geocoding ..

Francesco
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  • Well, if only 10% of the total iOS devices were iOS >= 5.0 devices, then the effort would've been most definitely been worth it, otherwise you'd lose 90% of your potential customers. – rid Mar 17 '12 at 16:06
  • And graceful degradation has been made harder by the slight changes in the APIs as of 5.0 (for example consider the changes in UIViewController). – Krumelur Mar 17 '12 at 16:18
  • What I mean is that iOS 5.0 works quite well on 3gs.. and 3gs is old... there are few <= 3g devices around.. so... if you want to reach 100% you have to deploy on iOS 4.2 (for 3G) and maybe 3.3 (for the first iPhone)? so.. Further more.. some changes (like arc) have been ported to 4.3.. but 4.3 is not supported on iPhone 3G.. so I think it is a good choice to deploy on 5.0 (I don't know users with 3Gs and the old iOS 4.3) – Francesco Mar 17 '12 at 17:23