When Apple Inc released its latest software update, the iOS 7, on Sept 18, the number of iOS users downloading the new update almost broke the Internet. The Apple-related traffic on the Internet on that day caused a worldwide slowdown in other Internet activities, according to Blue Coat, a Web security company which monitors Internet activity using several service providers.

The company said its data shows that Apple users downloading the Apple's iOS 7 caused a major traffic jam in the first few days since the new software for compatible iOS devices was released.

Blue Coat's Jeff Brainard wrote on the company blog that Internet service providers saw 265 per cent of traffic in Apple.com in the five days after iOS 7 became available for download. The data within this period was compared to the previous five days before iOS 7 was released.

Some Internet service providers usually have 4 per cent of Apple.com traffic, but this figure rose to 13 per cent when the iOS 7 was released. Mr Brainard said that one service provider saw Apple.com traffic account for 32 per cent of worldwide Web traffic.

He said he has never seen a file update generating a massive Web traffic since Apple's iOS 7 update. According to Mr Brainard, previous iOS updates or Windows file updates can be detected since they see spikes on traffic but "nothing close to what was seen with iOS 7."

The iOS 7 software update could vary for some users, depending on their iOS device and version Apple users were updating from. Some Apple users might get an update of a few hundred megabytes. Some users might notice the iOS 7 update to take longer because the file size is at 1.2 GB. With this size, it requires almost 4 times of free space to install the update.

Apple Inc's iOS 7 adoption rate rose to 58 per cent after a week the iOS software update was released. This makes the iOS 7 the fastest software update to be downloaded by users ever.

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