Major visual or interaction overhauls at the operating‑system level can materially retard upgrade adoption—creating a months‑long lag that leaves large shares of devices on older, potentially less secure versions. That lag is measurable (e.g., iOS 26 at ~15–16% after four months vs ~60% for iOS 18 at comparable age) and has downstream effects on patch coverage, app compatibility, and the platform’s rollout strategy.
— If OS redesigns slow adoption, governments and regulators should account for resulting security/fragmentation windows and developers must plan multi‑version support; it also constrains how fast companies can unilaterally change defaults without political or market consequences.
msmash
2026.01.12
89% relevant
The article documents a concrete UI redesign (macOS 26 Tahoe corner radius and invisible resize hit target) that creates user friction and an explicit recommendation to avoid upgrading; this maps directly to the existing idea that radical UI changes can slow OS upgrade adoption, increase fragmentation, and create security/compatibility windows.
msmash
2026.01.09
100% relevant
StatCounter reports iOS 26 at ~15–16% adoption nearly four months after September release; MacRumors traffic shows iOS 26 presence far lower than prior cycle, coinciding with the Liquid Glass UI redesign.
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