Over 50% of UK smartphone users are iPhone users – Ofcom
Ofcom has released its annual report into what people in the UK are doing online. It’s an interesting and intensive read, and shows that over half of UK smartphone users aged 16 or over use an iPhone as their primary device.
The report also confirms that Apple continues to attract the youngest groups, with 69% of UK users aged 16-24 using iPhones.
With that in mind, it is interesting that people aged 65 or more are the group least likely to use an iPhone, though that still works out to be 41%. Females use iPhones more than males (56% versus 52%). Inevitably, people with more money are more likely to use an iPhone, Ofcom’s data said – but as people slowly upgrade to iPhone from other platforms over time, the direction of travel remains up, I believe.
We listen to Apple Music
Ofcom also digs into digital music, confirming that Apple Music is seeing extensive use across every age bracket and gender in the UK. Meta has its hooks on the population, the report also confirms: WhatsApp is the UK’s most widely used app, followed by Facebook. Google Maps, YouTube, Insta, Amazon, Gmail, TikTok and Facebook Messenger are also widely used, the report explains. Interestingly, Apple Music competitor, Spotify, seems only widely used by people aged 18-34, which does seem to be a bit of an anomaly. But, in general, if you’re walking round London and you see people with headphones listening to music, a good 50% of them will be listening to Apple Music. It’s kind of like an invisible iPod, I suppose.
Apple News is a top five news service in UK
In May 2025, 97% of UK online adults – that’s 46 million people – visited a news service. Many of these use Apple News as their primary news service, though most use Meta and Google as a news source too.
As it did with a bang in 2022, Apple News continued to increase its audience this year, adding 1.8m adults since May 2024 (40%, 19.0m) and becoming the fifth highest-reaching service compared with eighth the previous year. Looking at Apple News only, reach increased year-on-year to 28% (13.6m) online adults (May 2024: 25%, 11.9m). Top publishers within Apple News included Sky News (10%, 5.1m), The Guardian (10%, 4.8m) and BBC News (9%, 4.6m).
Apple as a news outlet
Apple is bigger than Tesco
When it comes to online retail, Apple is now bigger than Tesco. Ofcom claims 98% of UK online adults visited an online retail store in May 2025, with each spending an average of 18 minutes each day with an online retail service. The data, which obviously includes the App Store, tells us Apple attracted 22.7 million visitors in May 2025, making it the fourth biggest online retailer.
Amazon remained the most visited retail service with 88% (43.2m) of UK online adults visiting within the month. Chinese-owned retail sites Temu and Shein have both seen considerable growth. Temu more than doubled its monthly audience from 13.8m in May 2023 to 28.4m in May 2025, and Shein grew more than 45% in that time. eBay remains the second biggest UK online retailer, but it grew only 0.5%.
If you use an iPhone you also use Apple Music, generally
A good starting point for Apple Health+
Apple offers a wealth of health features and UK users are turning to them. Around 3.7 million used an Apple health feature in May 2025, Ofcom claims, that’s up 1.6m on the year before and 2.4 million more than 2023.
While the UK market is dominated by the NHS services, Apple’s health services hover just behind Fitbit, Samsung health, Strava, and Healthline – but it looks as if, in the UK at least, just one or two great ideas would help boost use of those services.
Given speculation Apple plans an AI-augmented digital health system, it looks as if the company is in a good place to start.
About Apple Maps..
I think Maps has improved a lot, though I do still find some of the routes it suggests aren’t necessarily the best. Perhaps the botched introduction and subsequent quality problems with Maps are a gift to Apple to make it do more, which it has, all the same, in the UK at least, despite being the default navigation app on iPhones, Apple Maps was used by only 28% of iPhone users, said Ofcom. “A further decline from 33% in May 2024 and remains significantly less popular than Google Maps.”
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