Skip to main content

iOS shipments overtook Windows in 2015 for the first time, iOS 9 adoption hits 75%

Screen Shot 2016-01-12 at 7.28.06 PM

Last July, sales of iOS devices caught up with sales of Windows devices, making it a tight race as to who would ship the most units as 2015 wrapped up. Now, Asymco has shared a chart depicting the extraordinary growth of iPhone shipments and showing that in 2015, iPhone shipments overtook Windows shipments as a whole.

As you can see in the graph above, Apple shipped just over 300 million Macs, iPhones, and iPads in 2015, continuing its consistent yearly growth. There were 275 million Windows devices shipped in 2015, according to Asymco, down from 300 million in 2014. Around 10 million Macs were shipped, meaning Apple shipped 290 million iOS devices.

While Android shipments still considerably outpace iOS and Windows shipments, it’s important to remember that iOS devices are made by one manufacturer and one manufacturer only, whereas Android devices are made by a plethora of different manufacturers and are available in all sorts of different variants.

Furthermore, Apple today announced that iOS 9 is now installed on 75 percent of active iOS devices. Apple updated its App Store support page for developers with new data recently, announcing this milestone. iOS 9, of course, was made available last September. Over the past month, iOS 9 adoption increased from 71 percent to 75 percent. 19 percent of users are now running iOS 8, while 7 percent are running earlier versions.

Yesterday, Apple announced the first beta of iOS 9.3, brining with it new CarPlay features, Night Shift mode, new Health features, and more. This should lead to even more users finally taking the plunge and updating to iOS 9 at long last.

[tweet https://twitter.com/asymco/status/687048149358231552 align=’center’]

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. mime454 - 8 years ago

    That chart makes it look like Mac+iPad+iPhone overtook windows of sales. It doesn’t depict iPhones alone beating Windows devices.

  2. DubDJ - 8 years ago

    75% + 19% + 7% = 101%? I’m guessing one of those figures are off or am I missing something?

  3. cdm283813 - 8 years ago

    Comparing iOS devices like my iPad Air 2 to my custom built i7 6700k sky lake gaming rig (which is oculus Rift ready when my headset ships in March) is a pretty silly comparison.
    As much as I respect iOS devices (I do own a iPad and iPhone) their not computer replacements. Their used primarily as portable consumption devices. Sure you can do work and play games but do you really want to when you have access to powerful computer with large monitor?
    I’m not sure why comparing products like this make sense? And I can’t be the only person building custom computers; how do those count?

    • Francisco Feijó Delgado - 8 years ago

      Certainly you’re not the only one building custom computers (although you’re probably a minority), but did you take a look at what you wrote: 1 person, 1 i7 PC, 2 iOS devices. Asymco is merely plotting this. You may think the comparison is silly, but if you’re analyzing the non-infrastructure IT hardware (consumer + business) industry, I’d say it makes a lot of sense.

  4. ankushnarula - 8 years ago

    And now you know why Microsoft is out there attacking the iPad Pro. It has nothing to do with the Apple Pencil or quotes about a stylus from 9 years ago – but it does have everything to do with the iOS eclipsing Windows in mind share and now market share.

  5. RP - 8 years ago

    And that Windows downward plunge will only keep going down. Not just a dig at Windows, it’s a reality that the general consumer can do most of what they did on a Windows machine with their cell phone. At home a family does not need fire up the furnice and shovel coal into the Windows rig. Teen boys can take their phone in the bathroom and watch porn there. Teen girls can talk to each other while eating dinner with the family. Dad can plan the week with on Tinder in the car before he gets home. The Windows age is over.

  6. mannyleaders - 8 years ago

    So they compared phones to non-phones…. Okay.

  7. Swordmaker - 8 years ago

    According to Apple’s 10K financial report, Apple actually shipped 20,587,000 Macintosh computers in fiscal 2015 which ended in September 2015. Combining all models of Macs, iPhones, and iPads, but excluding iPod touches, which should also be counted as computers, the total number was 306,661,000.

    • PhilBoogie - 8 years ago

      What has that to do with the article? Asymco is reporting on C2015, not F2015.

      • Swordmaker - 8 years ago

        Calendar 2015 Mac sales would have been even higher sales than Fiscal 2015 due to the fact that every quarter of calendar 2015, especially the last quarter of calendar 2015, was higher than the previous calendar and fiscal year. Ergo, Mac sales had to be far larger than 10 million in calendar 2015 than the 20.58 million sold in fiscal 2015 since Quarter 1 2016 Mac sales exceeded Quarter 1 2015 sales. That’s what it has to do with the article.

  8. Alexander Trust - 8 years ago

    As Apple does not disclose iPod touch sales figures it’s hard to guess how much devices add up to the figures from Asymco. Because the iPod touch is not included in those stats.

  9. Doug Aalseth - 8 years ago

    So somebody called Asymco shipped nearly 400,000 units in 1982 and then vanished without a trace? Why have I never heard of them?
    :)):

  10. crichton007 - 8 years ago

    “it’s important to remember that iOS devices are made by one manufacturer and one manufacturer only, whereas Android devices are made by a plethora of different manufacturers and are available in all sorts of different variants.”

    Which is funny because the same thing can be said about Windows PCs. It really is sad since so many people are pointing out that Apple is doomed anyway…

  11. Erik WP - 8 years ago

    This is comparison is Apples and oranges. A proper comparison would be Windows PC vs OSX devices which is 275 million vs 10 million. Or you need to compare iOS vs non-IOS. Then again, the source is 9to5Mac so you can’t expect an unbiased article. For non Jobites: Apple sold 301,349,000 devices (iOS and OSX) in 2015. By comparison, there were 1,370,893,000 Android devices sold. In total there were 2,290,404,000 non Apple devices sold. Source: Gartner

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com