iOS 7 now running on 78 percent of iOS devices: Apple

According to the latest iOS distribution statistics shared by Apple on its developer website, iOS 6 is still present on 18 percent iOS devices, while the earlier versions recorded their presence on 4 percent devices. The data was measured by the iTunes App Store during a seven day period ending December 29, 2013.

In December, iOS 7 was running on 74 percent of all iOS devices, while iOS 6 was present on 22 percent iOS devices, and the earlier versions were on 4 percent devices, which means that an additional 4 percent users have upgraded to iOS 7 in the last month.

Contrast that with the adoption rate of Google's latest mobile operating system, Android 4.4 KitKat. According to data shared by Google last month, the most recent version was present on only 1.1 percent of all Android devices, approximately 2 months after the OS was released. The combined share of Android Jelly Bean, the common name of Android 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3, was just 54.5 percent with Android 4.1.x on 37.4 percent devices, Android 4.2.x on 12.9 percent and Android 4.3.x on 4.2 percent devices.

Apple proudly boasts the highest adoption rate of any mobile operating system available in the market. However, it's worth pointing out that unlike updates for Android and other mobile operating systems, Apple's OS updates are much more streamlined as they target a limited number of devices made by Apple itself. The company doesn't need to go through OEMs and carriers before updates are seeded out to the public, reducing the time taken to reach end users by leaps and bounds.