Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference is only around a month away, and while we’re already expecting to see iOS 7 at least previewed at the event, now we have some actual data to back up that supposition.Onswipe, the mobile site conversion company that leverages HTML5 to deliver tablet-optimized websites, has seen a big spike in traffic to its partner sites from devices running iOS 7 in recent days.
Over the past week, Onswipe found a significant bump in the number of visits from iOS 7 iPhones and iPads, specifically located in both Cupertino and San Francisco. SF had the most iOS 7 visits, with 18.75 percent, and Cupertino accounted for 17.9 percent of the total. May 2 saw the highest iOS 7 traffic to date, representing 23 percent, or nearly a quarter, of all unique iOS visitors to Onswipe-enabled sites. Most were visiting from iPhones (75 percent), but iPads also represented a full quarter of visits.
Apple typically tests new versions of iOS internally, before then releasing them as a developer preview to anyone registered with the iOS developer program, and then finally releasing it to the public after another few months of testing. An increase in the number of users on iOS 7 is a likely sign that Apple is advancing the testing more aggressively ahead of a wider launch at WWDC, which is in keeping with other reports we’ve seen that say Apple is indeed redirecting resources to iOS 7 to make sure it arrives on schedule.
Onswipe didn’t just note how much use iOS 7 was getting, it also identified what people on the yet-to-be-released OS were looking at. Specifically, Onswipe found that iOS 7′s pioneer users were interested in finding out about which turntable to buy, Vine’s recent update that allows for selfie vids, Apple’s stock price drama and Kid Cudi. Maybe those Onswipe-enabled sites are particularly well-tuned for stress testing the next version of Safari, or maybe that’s just the kind of stuff Apple engineers are into.
As for what iOS 7 will bring, there’s precious little information so far, besides rumors that the design will embrace a more flat visual style, and that core apps like calendar and email will get significant functionality updates. At least we don’t have long to wait to find out what’s next for Apple’s mobile OS.
Data source: TC (BY DARRELL ETHERINGTON)
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