A billion people now use iPhones, analyst claims

iPhone arrived 13 years ago in 2007. People turning teenage from now on have never known life without a smartphone.

Apple’s iOS market share has exceeded 1.4 billion for several years, but now it looks as if a billion people – around one-eighth of the human population – are now using iPhones, reports Above Avalon (via PED30).

A billion Siri’s in the world today

Apple’s messaging appears to be cutting through. Consumers know that smartphones are costly, but as they become increasingly important across every part of life – how we work, live and play – they want to invest in devices that are secure and that are likely to keep working for years, not months.

And that’s not the experience they’ve enjoyed with some of the devices they might have been using until now.

Well, that’s what I think, so what does analyst Neil Cybart at Above Avalon see?

“According to my estimate, Apple passed the billion iPhone users milestone last month. Thirteen years after going on sale, the iPhone remains the perennial most popular and best-selling smartphone. Competitors continue to either shamelessly copy iPhone or, at a minimum, be heavily influenced by the iPhone. Looking ahead, Apple’s top priorities for the iPhone include finding ways to keep the device at the center of people’s lives while at the same time recognizing the paradigm shift ushered in by wearables.”

Peak iPhone 2.0

His report looks at unit sales, noting several critical points:

1. Unit sales fell slightly since 2019.
2. iPhone upgraders account for around 82% of all sales.
3. But new to platform sales account for the rest.
4. Apple has an installed based in excess of a billion iPhones.
5. In FY2015 Apple sold 231 million iPhones, this is widely regarded as ‘Peak iPhone’.
6. But the data coming in on strength of iPhones SE and 12 suggests the company may shift 240 million iPhones this year.

Cybart has a great track record for Apple analysis, and if you’re interested in such quality analysis you can subscribe right here.

What’s this mean?

I’m not convinced any single platform has ever been as pervasive as the smartphone, which absolutely has become a ‘bicycle for the mind’.

I’m also unconvinced that there has ever before been a unified platform with a billion users.

Yes, there’s Android, but that’s a fragmented platform that doesn’t deliver the kind of high-quality consistency you get from Apple.

Providing this kind of platform is absolutely a power position, so it’s no surprise Apple is under more regulatory pressure than ever before. Equally, these things are incredibly new, and we’ve not reached the peak of the changes they bring.

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