Apple Inc. launched its latest iOS update for its iDevices, and it has immediately affected web traffic across North America.

According to Chitika Insights, the first 24 hours following Apple's release of iOS 7.1 saw the update account for 5.9 percent of the total North American iOS web traffic. The report noted devices with the iOS 7.0.6 update accounted for 6 percent of the total iOS-based Web traffic.

Chitikia Insights collected its data from "tens of millions" iOS based online advertisement impressions generated within Chitika's ad network from March 9 and March 11. The web data, although emphasized as "North America," was only based on ad impressions in Canada and the United States.

"As an ad network, Chitika Insights measures usage based on ad impressions served within our network," noted Chitika Insights in its report. "An ad impression is measured when an individual user loads a page containing Chitika ad code. Chitika Insights' method does not measure unique users, it measures overall Web usage. This means that if a user views ten pages that contain Chitika code, they will register ten ad impressions. All Chitika ad impressions in this study are generated through Web browsing, not mobile or desktop applications."

Chitika Insights noted its typical sample for a study consists of nearly 300 million Canadian and U.S. impressions based on page views rather than unique views.

Chitika Insights acknowledged that due to Apple's notification update strategy, it is likely for future, even minor, iOS 7 updates to encounter high comparable levels of adoption.

Overall, the iOS 7 platform generated more than 80 percent of the iOS-based Web traffic during the three-day span of the data collection. As a result, it means there are still Apple devices with the iOS 6 platform and may be even lower.

"With this in mind, all eyes will be on iOS 8 and whether it can continue Apple's streak of higher rates of adoption for each successive major release," added Chitika.

iOS 7.1 launched publicly for general release on March 10. The update featured general fixes including a solution to a reboot bug for some iPhone devices. iOS 7.1 also improved the fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5s and functions for the recently announced CarPlay.

Chitika Insights' online ad network includes advertising partners such as Yahoo!, Shopzilla, and yellowbook, to name a few of over 250,000 sites.

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