Apple made iOS 7 available in beta form to registered developers shortly after it was unveiled back in June, with a view to using usage analytics to iron out the platform's bugs.
However, by hook or by crook, it would appear the latest version of the OS may have already branched beyond that base.
Early start
Chitika claims web usage statistics claim iOS 6 is the dominant version of the OS, with a 92 percent share of all iPhones.
That puts it well ahead of iOS 5 on 5 percent and earlier versions on 2 percent.
Sneaking in at the bottom is iOS 7 with a 1 percent share. Using Apple's own statistics published at the time of its beta launch suggesting that there are 575 million registered App Store accounts across the globe.
The numbers game
Using that figure as a rough base, that would mean around 5.75 million devices are running iOS 7 before the platform has even officially launched.
The new 'flat' look of the OS no doubt ensured it attracted more interest than usual, though it's worth noting that Apple also revealed back in June that there are 6 million registered iOS developers.
It's not a massive leap, therefore, to suggest that a portion of those developers sign up simply to obtain iOS versions well ahead of release.
One caveat, however, is that Chitika registers iPad views separately, with iOS 7 sporting an indiscernible share on said tablets.
Nevertheless, it'll be interesting to see just how long it takes iOS 7 to overhaul iOS 6 at the top of the tree once it hits the digital shelves.
[source: Chitika]
