iOS 26’s failure shows what happens when you take customers for granted
Last week I had a great time digging into OS adoption data and recreating my glory days as a high school mathematician. But the numbers are decidedly less amusing for Tim Cook. According to a study by StatCounter, the adoption rate of iOS 26 is less than a quarter of that of iOS 18 at the same point in its release cycle, and that’s bad news for the iPhone.
Why don’t people install iOS 26? The short answer is “Liquid Glass,” since the new design language was so widely reviled that Apple was forced to unusually backtrack to allow people to turn off some of its transparency effects. But if I may, there is a longer answer that I’d like to explore a little.
More than any other technology company, Apple’s success is based on loyalty. Its products tend to be more expensive, specification by specification, than those made by its competitors, but customers buy them anyway because they believe the experience will be better and they want the company to prosper. Loyal Apple users view a walled garden product ecosystem as a plus, not a minus, because it isn’t. to want leave. Even the Apple Store, which appeared anachronistically at the turn of the century as other companies shed their physical obligations, takes on its full meaning when we understand that its goal is not to sell units, but to evangelize the Apple lifestyle. It’s a loyalty factory.
But a business model based on loyalty goes both ways. As we so often see in online discourse, a very loyal user base will stand by its favorite company, even rushing to its defense when things go wrong. Until they don’t.
Provided the missteps are isolated, you should be fine. Apple Maps, for example, was an embarrassing failure when it launched in 2012, but at the time it seemed like a rare mistake rather than a symptom of something bigger. In recent years, however, Apple’s software failures have become the rule, not the exception.
Some of these are the result of a failure of quality control: a desire to announce, or even release, software that is not fit for purpose. Many software features marked Apple Intelligence fall into this category, as does Siri 1.0, whose performance seems to be deteriorating incredibly. Others represent the opposite problem: the inability to deliver a needed product, exemplified by Siri 2.0. As my colleague Jason Snell argues, 2025 may be remembered for what Apple didn’t deliver. Real artists ship.
But there is a third category, which represents no error. These are cases of deliberate enshittification: moments of greed, arrogance, and the belief that customer loyalty protects the company from consequences. For example, the App Store became riddled with ads a few years ago, a move so unpopular that Apple decided to do the same with Apple News, Stocks and (starting next year) Maps. It was even caught showing ads in iMovie. For what? Because the company thinks so can.
It’s debatable whether the blatant design of last year’s OS updates falls into the category of arrogance or incompetence; maybe it’s both. But Apple should remember that customer loyalty is limited and there are consequences when you continually lower your quality control standards. When your entire business relies on people who love you, it’s best not to take them for granted.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in one handy summary. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it pairs really well with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you also want to read it during lunch or dinner hours.
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