As I write this piece, online stats show that iOS 8 is closing in on an adoption rate of 50%, moving ahead of iOS 7 for the first time. That number sounds impressive, and it would be except for the fact that migration from iOS 6 to iOS 7 was far higher at this point in time. But compared with any other OS platform, the numbers are still startling.

There are legitimate reasons not to update, other than simply not having an iOS device that supports supports it. The oldest iPhone on the list, the 4s, may offer somewhat slower performance after iOS 8 is installed. It’s not a whole lot slower — the timings I’ve seen are in the quarter second to full second range for app launches — but that could be the critical difference between snappy and not so snappy.

As with the first releases of iOS 7, the update has a number of problems. Some report poor Wi-Fi connection speeds, but I haven’t seen that on a network using an Apple AirPort Extreme. Others report problems interfacing Bluetooth with a car’s infotainment system, but I haven’t had that problem either. It may depend on make/model and the version of the Bluetooth implementation in your vehicle.

I haven’t read as many complaints about poor battery life, which is another bugaboo that arrives with an iOS update. It’s also important to realize that most of the worst ills will be fixed before long. There are already published reports that an 8.1 update is coming shortly, maybe alongside Apple’s October 16th media event or the following week. That update will reportedly bring Apple Pay for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, perhaps some extra features for the next generation iPads, plus the usual spate of bug fixes.

But it’s certainly a good time for the usual Apple critics to tell you why they aren’t upgrading to iOS 8, and some of the reasons are legitimate. But others stretch the facts, apparently written just to say something negative about Apple or an Apple product.

So a certain tech site owned by a major entertainment company has an article from a blogger explaining why he’s put the iOS 8 updates on the back burner. But when you read the article, you’ll see serious question marks. Take the claim that he has an iPhone 3G running iOS 7 , but the oldest supported model was the iPhone 4. What’s more, performance on that model wasn’t terribly good until later iOS 7 updates. The situation was not unlike what is happening with the iPhone 4s.

Still you wonder about a blogger who touts his experience as a lecturer, “author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist” imagines he installed iOS 7 on an iPhone on which it cannot be installed.

Just as important, the blogger really doesn’t have a lot of recent Apple hardware. He has a third generation iPad, a first generation iPad mini, and an iPhone 4s. So two of these products present the minimum configurations for iOS 8. Aside from the clear performance issues — which again night be addressed in part in a later update — they represent the hardware that is less apt to benefit from the new OS.

In other words, explaining why he won’t update is hardly worth the bother. Such skepticism is just plain common sense. There’s also a dose of fear mongering. So we know all about the flawed iOS 8.0.1 update, but the problems only impacted an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 6s. The blogger in question doesn’t have any Apple gear that new.

Worse, he claims, “Performing the iOS update could take thousands of dollars of working hardware and make it no longer working hardware…” I’ll stop there. This is sheer nonsense. Someone who claims to have such stellar credentials is either fooling us about his resume, or deliberately playing dumb as hit bait.

While I would not necessarily expect one who claims to be a “U.S. policy advisor” to necessarily be tech savvy — though I do wonder what sort of policies he delivers advice about — someone claiming to be a “computer scientist” is either being dishonest with the reader, or perhaps needs to seek another line of work for which he is more qualified.

This isn’t the first time I’ve read such nonsense from the writer in question. There have been other fact-free rants from him as well. I also wonder about the tech site giving such bloggers the freedom to write such rants. Is there no editorial staff — let alone a fact checker or two — to review the content and ask a few questions?

It’s also true that this particular blogger confesses he’s moved to Android largely because he can’t stand normal touch keyboards, and prefers Swype. That’s his choice, and now he can satisfy his preferences with iOS 8. But it’s highly unlikely he’ll ever give it a chance. Besides, if he isn’t buying any new Apple gear, by the time iOS 9 arrives, even his iPad 3 and iPhone 4s will most likely not be compatible.

If he told me the sun was shining, I’d look outside just to be sure.

So there a big story this week about a certain survey that appears, on the surface, to indicate that teens aren’t especially interested in buying an Apple Watch. The results are based on a twice-yearly survey conducted by Piper Jaffray, a respected industry analyst company. The report comes from Gene Munster, known to like his Macs, so it has to be taken seriously, I suppose.

But there are problems in this survey of 7,200 teens. Yes, it shows that younger people favor iPhones and iPads, which is certainly nothing new, although some have claimed Apple is losing its touch with our youth as the company’s executives get older.

But what about the iWatch?

Yes, I said the iWatch. This widely-quoted survey was conducted before Apple took the wraps off the Apple Watch, when the media continued to refer to it by the original expected name. Until Apple Watch was introduced, the rumor sites didn’t have a whole lot of information about the configuration or the features, beyond what they assumed from other smartphones. They certainly didn’t know the price.

So when asked whether they’d buy an iWatch, only 16% of the teens questioned said yes. This is a number that Apple’s critics have pounced on when suggesting the chances for success for the Apple Watch are suddenly diminished. Again, this survey came before the Apple Watch was actually revealed, so you can hardly accept the outcome as an accurate reflection of potential demand.

Since Apple Watch starts at $349, it’s also not a product most younger people would even be able to afford, assuming they wanted one. But I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how the survey would fare if it was done a little later, to incorporate accurate information about Apple’s forthcoming smartwatch.

Just as important, I wonder if those teens even fit into Apple’s target audience for an Apple Watch, which is a being presented, in part, as a fashion accessory. Indeed, how many young people these days even use watches anymore? Perhaps as they get older, enter the working world, they might want to consider such a gadget. But not now.

As someone who has had a watch of one sort or another for decades, I think back to when I was a teen. Buying a watch that cost more than $100, which in my day would be a higher equivalent price to what Apple is charging for the Apple Watch, wouldn’t be on my radar. In those days, any watch I had would cost less than $25.

Regardless of how the Apple Watch fared, Apple does have a low to crow about from this survey. Some 73% indicated they’d be purchasing an iPhone, an increase of five points over the previous survey. Despite the apparent flagging sales of iPad, 60% of those who planned to buy a tablet would choose an iPad. Some 19% selected a Microsoft Surface, which is certainly good news for that company. But that means that only 21% are left for Android tablets.

Obviously adult preferences are going to be quite different, although it’s hard to find actual evidence that the iPad has slumped to a minority status in the worldwide tablet market. The ongoing surveys have their own problems, such as giving too much emphasis to so-called “white box” tablets where actual sales figures are almost impossible to come by.

I will be perfectly honest about it. Assuming I have a spare $349 when the Apple Watch arrives, I am not all certain that I’d want one, even knowing I could return it if it didn’t suit my needs. Bear in mind that price is for the entry-level model. As soon as you get to the anodized aluminum and 18 karat gold editions, the price will go up substantially. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Apple Watch configurations going for more than $1,500, but as a fashion accessory that would be real cheap for anyone who might otherwise consider a Rolex. And I’m not even considering the extra watch bands.

Understand I am not assuming any deception on the part of Munster or the company that writes his paychecks. The survey was probably sincere, and carefully crafted. I am more concerned about alleged tech journalists who are making assumptions without paying much attention to the limitations of the survey, the biggest being, of course, that nobody knew anything about the product when the questions were first asked.

So it may be another few months before a more accurate read on teen interest in an Apple Watch is available, most likely after they actually go on sale. But maybe Piper Jaffray should consider contacting the survey participants to see if they want to revise their opinions about Apple Watch now that we know a real product is in the offing, and it’s not just idle speculation.

Otherwise, we’ll have to wait till the Apple Watch actually goes on sale. It’s too early to make assumptions right now, survey or not.

Meantime, both IDC and Gartner have released surveys of PC sales indicating that Mac sales continued to grow in the last quarter, finally gaining a spot among the top five worldwide. Since both companies have seriously undercounted Mac sales in the past with no apologies, however, I’ll be curious to see the real figures when Apple releases its quarterly financials on October 20.

After claiming Apple is poised for doom for so long, it’s going to be real hard for some members of the media and financial community to admit there are better suited candidates to include in the list of troubled companies. It’s not that news of those companies is being hidden, but they won’t give it much play unless it’s all somehow linked to Apple.

So you have a story in the Wall Street Journal about Samsung’s ongoing problems competing in the mobile handset space against not just Apple, but against such companies as Xiaomi Tech at the low end. So Samsung is being encroached on both ends of the market, and that is considered one of the key reasons why the company is reportedly going to report a drop of 62% in operating profits for the latest quarter. That makes four bad quarters in a row, which is not such a good thing for a company that was once considered to be unstoppable.

To make matters worse for Samsung, Apple has taken away the biggest argument to get a Samsung smartphone, and that’s display size. With the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, which is expected to garner a hefty portion of the market in Asia once supplies improve, demand is said to be off the charts.

Of course, we will know more once Apple’s quarterly financials are disclosed on October 20. But it would be surprising if there wasn’t a pretty large boost in iPhone sales compared to last year, what with 10 million units sold as of the first weekend.

How Samsung will cope with this turn of affairs is ripe for speculation. It doesn’t seem as if there is much new, other than to take existing products and do modest refreshes. The Galaxy S5, with a barely usable fingerprint sensor, failed to catch fire. There are hopes for the Galaxy Note 4 phablet, but there are also published reports that graphics performance is nothing to write home about.

One thing Samsung might do, of course, is to settle the patent disputes with Apple. That might encourage Apple to do more business with them, which would surely help compensate for the lost sales in Samsung’s mobile handset business.

That takes us to another tech powerhouse, one that highly influenced Apple over the years, and that’s HP. It’s fitting that Apple’s new spaceship campus in Cupertino, CA is being built on land formerly occupied by HP.

So we have the announcement this week that HP is splitting itself into two. One division will handle the traditional PC and printer business, while the other will cater to the enterprise with servers, software and services.

Certainly Wall Street has reacted positively to this musical chairs scheme, which will culminate next year. But I fail to see how reorganizing corporate umbrellas will somehow boost revenue and profits. Perhaps it will give HP room to sell off the HP Inc. division, the one that will sell PCs and printers, to a company that might fare better in the marketplace. I’m reminded of IBM’s decision in 2004 to sell off the PC division to Lenovo of China.

It’s fitting to note that Lenovo has actually been quite successful and, along with Apple, has been one of the few PC makers to actually gain market share. Indeed, in the recent quarter, Lenovo reportedly outsold HP, which causes one to wonder just what HP is doing wrong and how the latest desperate maneuver will change things.

What is clear, though, is that CEO Meg Whitman has yet to express a genuine vision for the future of HP that will somehow deliver improved financials. Why would an HP customer care which division sells what? If the prices are the same, the products are the same, and the quality of support is the same, what difference does a change in corporate structure do?

What might happen, I suppose, is that it would give investors more options, and they can decide which division to back and which division to ignore.

The issue with HP may also be that, typical of many companies, it’s just trying to do too many things, which makes it more difficult to be a lean and mean competitive machine. So being split in two parts may give the two companies more incentive to boost revenue. After periods of layoffs, it may also create the need for more employees, since certain tasks may not be divided among different divisions.

Still, I cannot see why anyone would be more tempted to buy an HP PC or printer, although both are well designed and reliable. Would being part of a separate company somehow inspire a new wave of innovation? I also fail to see how more HP servers will be sold to the enterprise, or how any of the services and software products that are being offered will suddenly become more attractive to customers.

I also wonder if an HP enterprise salesperson, freed of dependence on the company’s own PC and printer divisions, would be free to begin to recommend someone else’s products instead. Imagine an HP rep selling Lenovo PCs.

Since iOS 8 doesn’t look altogether different from iOS 7, there’s the perception that there aren’t lots of changes. If you look at the bill of particulars though, it’s not a handful of refinements and some new apps. There are loads of significant changes that are more than skin deep. It’s also true that the controversial flat interface of the previous OS is somewhat tamed.

Although there were loads of protests about iOS 7, upgrade stats were off the charts. Before iOS 8 became available last month, some 91% of the iOS user base had upgraded to its predecessor. That’s a compelling achievement by any estimate. In contrast, getting a high single digit adoption rate for a new version of Google’s Android can take long months.

Still, iOS 8 adoption remains under 50%, noticeably less than iOS 7 at this early stage. Even though the previous OS had a faster upgrade pace, it’s probably not a significant issue. Don’t forget that adoption of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is reported to be way ahead of last year’s iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c; over 7% as of Monday.

True online metrics of this sort have margins for error, since they vary, sometimes substantially, from measurement firm to measurement firm. But trends tend to be consistent, and it’s clear that even if fewer older iPhones and iPads are moving to iOS 8, the number of new sales will soon make up for much of the difference.

I suppose Apple didn’t make the upgrade path so easy either. If you have a device with 16GB of RAM (don’t even think of those 8GB models), you’ll want to do the update via iTunes, since there won’t be much free space available on the unit itself to install the 1.1GB upgrade file.

But it’s no doubt true that Apple can’t make magic, regardless of what you think, and the installation requirements are what they are. If you want to update to iOS 8 on a storage starved iPhone or iPad, except trouble if you’re not using iTunes.

Ture to form, the Apple hate mongers are in full force. Apple’s very serious misstep with the iOS 8.0.1 update is mentioned time and time again. One blogger for a major tech site claimed it had more bugs than iOS 8, which is decidedly not true. A certain consumer test publication insisted that Apple took hours to withdraw the update when troubles were discovered, which is also decidedly not true.

In the real world, as opposed to the alternate Bizarro world in which some tech pundits live, iOS 8.0.1 fixed several problems and added two to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They were serious, though. The connection to a cellular network was broken, and Touch ID stopped working. It worked fine on other iPhones. What’s more, Apple became aware of the problem quickly enough to pull the update in a little over an hour. Some 40,000 units were impacted by the flaws, and Apple posted instructions online on how to get them up and running by downgrading to iOS 8.

It was a serious mistake, and the person or persons who made the decision to release 8.0.1 ought to face the music. It was a decidedly dumb move regardless of the excuses one might make for it. One report suggested the group handling the update didn’t have proper access to an iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus due to Apple’s extreme secrecy policies. But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Just as likely, a last-minute change before release created unforeseen problems; regardless the testing process clearly failed.

The very next day, the 8.0.2 update fixed the problem. It doesn’t mean that things were perfect. There are still reports of early release bugs with the various versions of iOS 8, and you expect Apple will fix the worst of them soon. An 8.1 update is expected to launch Apple Pay and perhaps a new iPad lineup, and that might come as early as next week, when another Apple media event may happen.

I think some of the people who are complaining a lot about iOS 8 issues forget the shaky rollout of iOS 7. All the zooming and parallax view special effects made some people dizzy until Apple devised better ways to slow or halt the excesses. To some, the thin lettering of interface elements were too thin, although it was possible to switch to a bolder typeface.

For iOS 8, Apple has enhanced the ability to alter system font sizes and apps that support ‘Dynamic Type,” and make the text bold. The interface seems a tad smoothed out, so whatever ragged edges remain probably aren’t as significant as those that showed up in the first versions of iOS 7. But it’s possible the problems with the previous release may have made some of you think twice about an OS upgrade so early in the game. Maybe you want to wait for things to settle down a bit longer before you take the plunge.

By next year, when iOS 9 arrives, the user base for iOS 8 will still probably exceed 75-80%, which is still a pretty high number in the scheme of things. And Google? Don’t ask!