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According to PadGadget, just a few days after its release the iOS 5 was installed on 1 in 3 devices capable of running it.

When starting to develop a new app today in XCode I have to choose whether I want to use StoryBoards in it or not. If I choose yes, I will not be able to compile the app so it could run on the devices with the lower iOS versions than iOS 5.

In order not to leave more than two thirds of the potential users "overboard" the logical step would be to opt out the StoryBoards usage when starting a new app development.

On the other hand when the app is finished (let's say in 1-6 months) maybe 90% of iOS devices will be running iOS 5, thus it would make sense to start the development of a project today aiming for the support of iOS 5 or greater.

What are your opinions on this issue and how can one predict the approximate future usage of a new iOS?

Gytis
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  • I'm voting to close this as too localized, because these statistics change day-to-day, so anything we state now will be out of date in a month. We've seen this with questions about going from 2.0->3.0: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2416240/iphone-os-current-usage-statistics-esp-2-x-vs-3-x and 3.0->4.0: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5291823/breakdown-of-ios-versions-being-used – Brad Larson Oct 21 '11 at 15:40
  • In my opinion on contrary it would be interesting to compare the predictions with the actual statistics in a month or two. – Gytis Oct 25 '11 at 07:46
  • It would make more sense going forward if the date of asking was added to the question: I.E. What are the potential (approximate) future usage tendencies of iOS 5 as of Late October 2011? – Undistraction Oct 26 '11 at 09:15

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My guess is that after 6 months a majority (say 60-70%) will have updated to iOS 5, but generally it's a good idea to support the two latest major OS versions.

That's probably going to change with iOS 5 forward, because of OTA updates, but for now I would keep supporting iOS 4.

voidStern
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