The iOS build running most iPhone units might surprise you

According to a YouTube poll conducted by Zollotech with 29,000 responses, iOS 18 Developer Beta 4 is the version of the iPhone's operating system found to be installed on most iPhone models. Beta releases are considered to be unstable and iPhone users are warned not to install a Beta version of iOS on their daily driver since certain features that the user might rely on everyday may not function as expected. Certainly, battery life will be diminished. Most iPhone users will wait for the final, stable version of iOS 18 to install it on their iPhone.

With this in mind, it is surprising that the poll shows that a leading 49% of respondents have iOS Developer Beta 18 downloaded on their iPhones. The latest stable version of the iPhone's operating system, iOS 17.5.1, is next; 43% of iPhone owners responding to the poll said that this is the version of iOS that they installed last. With last week's release of iPhone 17.6 RC (Release Candidate), Apple will launch the next stable iOS build possibly as soon as this Monday.

And that brings us to the 5% of iPhone users who have downloaded the iOS 17.6 Beta. I would think that if you're going to install a Beta version of iOS, it would be the iOS 18 Beta which includes a feature allowing users to customize the location, color, and size of app icons on the Home Screen. Another new capability on iOS 18 lets a user open any app on an iPhone's Lock Screen. The iOS 17.6 beta doesn't carry exciting new features as the iOS 18 Beta does.

Are you among the 3% of poll responders who are so far behind the times that your iPhone is running iOS 16 or older? There are a few reasons why someone might be included among this small number of iPhone users. The user might be so tech naive that he doesn't know how updates work or even understand that there is a major iOS update every year. Or perhaps the user is concerned that his iPhone is so old that it will be likely to lag and perform poorly running iOS 17. That might apply to those using an iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max which are the oldest models (they were released in 2018) eligible to update to iOS 18.

The final version of iOS 18 should be released in September around the same time that Apple releases the 2024 iPhone 16 series.