90 percent of iPhones and iPads in U.S./Canada powered by iOS 5 or above

Unlike Google with its Android platform, it seems that Apple doesn't have any problems getting its loyal users to download and install the latest versions of is iOS mobile platform.

According to research published by?Chitika Insights, the research arm of online ad network Chitika, 90 percent of the iDevices in the U.S. and Canada are running iOS 5.0 or above, with 61 percent powered by the latest iOS 6.0 release. The company reached this conclusion by analyzing the data collected by the "hundreds of millions of mobile ad impressions" coming out of its network from September 19?to October 19, 2012.

iOS 5 was released October 12, 2011, while iOS 6 was made available September 19, 2012, and represent the last two major releases of iOS.

Compare this to the market share for Google's latest mobile operating system offering, Android?4.1 "Jelly Bean", which continues to struggle to hit the 2 percent mark?after two and a half months.

The last two major releases of Android -- 4.1 "Jelly Bean" and 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" -- account for just over 25 percent of devices accessing Google's Play market.

According to a Chitika Insights spokesperson, "Apple's progress with iOS 6 is the best in the industry, and sets the bar high for its competitors when it comes to minimizing fragmentation".

The slow adoption of new versions of Android, on the other hand, affects everyone in the ecosystem. It forces developers to support an ever-increasing array of aging versions, while at the same time preventing them from making full use of new features. For consumers, it means that they are denied new features and not getting security updates that help keep their handsets and tablets safe from hackers and malware.

Chitika Insights estimates that iOS 6 adoption will hit 70 percent in the coming weeks, and that the release of the iPad mini "will likely accelerate this process".

Image source: Chitika Insights.

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