A new study conducted by SellCell this month among 2,000 adult iPhone users in the United States revealed that 22% of them have not updated their devices to iOS 26 yet, despite the update being available since September.
The main reason behind this was that some users were not aware of the update being issued in the first place, followed by the belief that the phone would update automatically without manual intervention.
Participants also pointed out concerns related to the decline in battery life after the update, in addition to not accepting the new design of the Liquid Glass interface. In addition, a number of users expressed their concern about the possibility of slow phone performance after installing the new system.
In the same context, the study showed that 61% of users do not update as soon as it is available, as most of them prefer to wait a short period to ensure that major problems do not arise. On the other hand, some rely on automatic updating, while others only update when forced to do so.
It is noteworthy that only 28% of participants confirmed that there is no reason preventing them from upgrading to iOS 26, which means that 72% have at least concerns or reservations.
Concern about battery consumption topped the list, followed by fear of declining performance, concerns that some considered justified in light of previous experiences with Apple updates. After that, there was dissatisfaction with the appearance or clarity of the Liquid Glass interface, in addition to concern about the difficulty of reverting to the previous version after the update.
While iOS 26 has achieved remarkable popularity among iPhone users, a large portion of them are still hesitant due to concerns related to performance and battery life, or due to lack of acceptance of the new design of the system.
