iPhone beats Android: iPhones reach 50% of the US market

For most of the long battle between Android and iOS, Android has remained superior in terms of raw numbers. After all, there are over two billion active Android devices in the world. Even here in the US, Android reigned supreme.

That is, until now. According to data compiled by The Financial Times via Counterpoint Research, iPhone beats Android in US numbers. For the first time ever, the iPhone’s active install base—meaning the number of active devices—represents more than 50% of the US market.

To make matters even more serious, it’s not just compared to Android smartphones – Android phones are also included.

You can see the chart below, which tells a whole lot of stories.

From 2018 to 2019, the active iPhone install base remained stable. It slowly (but very steadily) climbed into 2019 and into 2021. In the middle of 2021 it stalled a bit, then soared in the second half. In 2022, it has barely slowed down.

One thing that the graph shows very clearly is the success of the iPhone 13 series with the American public. The growth in 2021 was significant but stopped in the summer. As soon as the iPhone 13 series dropped, however, the numbers piled up.

Keep in mind that this chart doesn’t say much about the people who stuck with the iPhone. In other words, if someone owned an iPhone 12 and then upgraded to an iPhone 13, it wouldn’t cause a blip in the chart because the number of active iPhones would stay the same. This graph primarily represents people who are getting iPhones for the first time. You know what that means: most of these people have probably switched from Android.

It’s clear that Google and other Android OEMs are really going to have to step up if they don’t want to see this graph get even worse in 2023.