Apple today released iOS 6.1, an update which includes wider LTE carrier support, the ability to purchase movie tickets from Fandango via Siri, and also the ability to download individual songs via iTunes Match.

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including: – LTE support for more carriers (complete list of supported carriers at www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/)

– Purchase movie tickets through Fandango with Siri (USA only)

– iTunes Match subscribers can now download individual songs from iCloud

– New button to reset the Advertising Identifier

In an accompanying press release, Apple’s Phil Schiller noted that there now about 300 million iOS devices running iOS 6 since it first launched about 5 months ago.

iOS 6 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and with nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history.

During Apple’s most recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple to date has sold over 500 million iOS devices. If we put those pieces together we see that over half of every iOS device ever sold is now running the most recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Contrast that of course to Android where a scant minority of users are ever caught running the most recent iteration of Android.

Apple last touted the total number of iOS 6 users back in October 2012 when it said there were 200 million devices running iOS 6. So in about 3 months time, the number of iOS devices out in the wild running iOS 6 has increased by 50%. This of course is the result of new iOS device purchases (75 million in the last quarter alone) and software upgrades on older devices.

This is significant because it provides even more of an incentive for developers to target the iOS platform over Android.

via Apple