Business
Apple iPhone (Representative Image)
In a significant achievement, Apple has surpassed Android phones to account for over half of the smartphones used in the United States.
Apple passed the 50 per cent landmark, the Cupertino-based tech giant's highest share since the launch of iPhone in 2007, in the quarter ending in June, according to Counterpoint Research data.
Around 150 devices running Google's Android operating system, led by Samsung and Lenovo, accounted for the rest of the smartphone market share.
The numbers are based on smartphones in use, known as the “active installed base", reports Financial Times.
The active installed base takes into account the millions of people brought into Apple’s ecosystem through the used phone market, as well as those who use iPhones purchased years ago.
Android-based smartphones first went on sale in 2008, a year after debut of iPhone, and surpassed the iOS-installed base in 2010, according to NPD Group.
In the initial three years, Apple never had anything near 50 per cent market share in the US, as sales were dominated by Nokia, Motorola, Windows and BlackBerry.
iOS user base is also seeing a rise in Android-dominated markets as more and more users switch from the devices running Google's operating system to Apple's smartphones.
The company has also launched an affordable version of iPhone dubbed iPhone SE, in a bid to cater to wider audiences around the world.
The iPhone, a disruptive product that spawned entire industries, has made Apple the largest company in the world, with a market capitalisation of $2.5 trillion.
Of Apple's $365 billion revenue in 2021, as much as 52 per cent of it came from the sales of iPhone.
For the year 2020, a little over 51 per cent of the revenue for Apple came from the sales of iPhone.
In 2019, Apple sold 185 million units of the iPhone, and in 2020, as many as 195 million. The US tech giant sold around 240 million iPhones in 2021.