With the release of new devices and OS versions in Q4/2017, there have been some significant changes in the most popular devices around the globe. As always measured quarterly, we'd like to share a list of must-test devices against which you must ensure the app compatibility for the major markets.

The Status of OS Adoption

At the time of the publication of this blog, over 80% of observed iOS devices have iOS 11 installed now installed on over 80% of iOS devices. (source: Mixpanel iOS 11 adoption, based on 373B records). On the other side, as Android users get OS updates in different order depending on the devices they have, Android OS world is still vastly fragmented that Android 6.0 Marshmallow is the most popular OS version with 28% and the latest Android 8.1 (Oreo) is used only on 0.3% of Android devices, according to Android Developer stats.

Major Changes Happened in Q4/2017

Out of the 28 countries that we follow, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus overall have better rankings globally compared to the stats in Q3. Take the US market as an example, users seem to have been retiring their iPhone 5 and 5S since iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are among the top 20 devices. On the other side, Galaxy S8, S8 Plus and Note 8 have also taken the position of their predecessors. To learn more about how it's evolving in other observed countries, please download the latest device sheet for mobile device testing.

Device stats by the end of Q4'2017.

Device stats by the end of Q3'2017.

Conclusion

To have confidence in device compatibility, iOS developers are recommended to test on all iPhone 6, 7, 8 variations on iOS 11 and 10 for a complete iOS app testing. Though Android is a bit more fragmented, focusing on Samsung Galaxy series as well as country-specific popular devices based on your target markets should help you get a decent Android device coverage and improve your mobile app testing.

We at Bitbar host a versatile mobile device cloud for automated testing against real Android and iOS devices with support for the platform-specific testing frameworks like XCUITest and XCTest for iOS as well as Espresso for Android. We also support cross-platform testing tools like Appium and Calabash for users who exercise behavior driven testing (BDD) and deliver mobile DevOps environments in public, private and on-premise deployments.

Get a sheet of the most popular global smartphones and learn what devices every app developer should test against and verify the compatibility.