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Report: Apple now at over 100 million iPhones in use in the US

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) is out with a new report today claiming Apple is now at over 100 million iPhones in use in the US. That means Apple has crossed 100 million active iPhone units since CIRP reported 97 million iPhones in use back in August, according to the research firm’s data.

CIRP uses its data to estimate that, of the 101 million iPhone in use during the quarter, around 58 million were iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, 4 million were iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, and the rest previous generation models (as pictured above).

The report’s data accounts for up to the end of the September quarter and notes that 101 million iPhones were in use according to CIRP’s data. The company gets its numbers “by analyzing data on iPhone buyers, their new model selection, and their prior phones, and overlaying Apple iPhone sales data adjusted to the US market…” A survey of 500 Apple customers to be specific. 

CIRP also offered some insight on growth of the iPhone’s installed base, which it notes shows “Apple has fewer first time smartphone buyers to add to their base, and faces the challenge of attracting loyal Android users”:

This installed base grew on average 8% per quarter for the past eight quarters. In the September 2015 quarter, the installed base grew 4%, compared to 6% in the September 2014 quarter… “The data again shows that growth in the installed base of iPhones in the US has slowed,” said Josh Lowitz, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. “In previous quarters, we saw the installed base grow by as much as 17%, in the December 2013 quarter after the launch of the iPhone 5S and 5C. As the US market matures, Apple has fewer first time smartphone buyers to add to their base, and faces the challenge of attracting loyal Android users.”

It was back in 2011 that Apple first announced it had reached the 100 million iPhones sold milestone, while in January it confirmed it had officially crossed its one billionth iOS device sold. Apple doesn’t, however, offer numbers on active iPhones in use.

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Comments

  1. Paul Wharff - 8 years ago

    This is crazy considering there approx 320M people living in the US. Making it about 1 in ever 3 people in the US owning an iPhone.

    • Don’t get too excited. They have reached their 100,000,000 figure based on doing a survey of just 500 people and extrapoliated the date upwards and came out with that figure.

      Oh dear. It could a lot less or a lot more than that. Who knows. But it’s great that people get paid real good money for coming out with reports like that.

      • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

        They gather what they feel is a big enough sample size. You know, statistical probability and they aren’t off by that much in the big scheme of things if they took the samples from a variety of geophraphic locations. I saw another survey and they said that most of the Android phones are used in places with a higher level of poverty and iPhones were being used in more middle class and upper class communities, which makes sense since there are drug dealers that use burner phones and there is a lot of really, really cheap Android phones. I saw one article talking about a $10 Android phone. But it’s not too difficult to get a $50 unlocked Android phone, and those are being sold to people that would normally only have enough for a cheap feature phone.

        there are many ways to look at this so this is just showing the approximate breakdown of models and I’m sure it’s probably +/- a few percentage points of accuracy.

    • Grayson Mixon - 8 years ago

      Slightly more than 50% of people in the US have a smartphone. So, that means that 2/3 of smartphone owners in the US have an iPhone. However, other methods of determining market share generally put iPhone at around 50% in the US. Those methods generally use much large sample sizes. So, I would say this has sizable error in it.

      If Apple has 50% of smartphone owners, and 50% of people own smartphones, it would be about 75 million, not 100 million. So there you go.

      • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

        I believe Apple has about 38% of the smartphone market in the US, as of the end of Sept, which is the beginning of the new model year and at the tail end of last year’s models, so when they do breakdowns at the end of Sept, they are at the lowest point in Apple’s smartphone sales. I’m sure those numbers are going to look different at the end of March, which is about 6 months of peak iPhone buying season. So these numbers fluctuate.

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

      Yeah, and consider that not all 320Mil people even own a smartphone. There are lots of children that are simply too young, or adults in retirement homes that don’t own a smartphone. There are also a certain percentage that own more than one phone because they get one from work and one for personal use, or they have a couple of phones just in case they need a backup. I would be interested in what the same breakdown is for outside the US.

  2. b9bot - 8 years ago

    Don’t get your products fixed at an unauthorized 3rd party company. Especially if it is in warranty or you will void it. Another thing to think about is your display. Those 3rd party companies do not have an authorized calibration machine to calibrate touch, the fingerprint sensor, and proximity sensors. There displays are flimsy and if you ever need to service your device again for a battery replacement more than likely the display will break when trying to remove it to get to the battery which will cost you more. Just something to think about people.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.