Billion does seem to be a lucky number for Apple!! After hitting the 100 billion USD mark in a single quarter for the first time in the company’s history, the Californian giant reported over a billion ‘active’ iPhone users worldwide. Damn!
In an official statement to the Reuters, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that Apple currently has 1B active users, surpassing last year’s mark of 900 million. The milestone, Apple’s personal best, becomes even more astonishing when you’re reminded that the company achieved this feat at a time when markets were falling like dry leaves during the pandemic and the lockdown.
What’s an ‘active’ user?
The Verge reported that Apple tags a device as active if it has engaged or availed an Apple service in the past 90 days. This means that a very large number of iPhone users who do not avail services are unaccounted for. It is estimated that Apple is very soon approaching the 2B sale mark for iPhones (completely unofficial), giving themselves yet another reason to celebrate at the head offices.
1.6 Billion iDevices?
Including the 1B active iPhone users that the tech giant has announced, Apple is looking at a 1.65 billion active users for all Apple devices, including iPods, iPads, Macs, Watches and all. This is an all-time high for Apple from 2019’s 1.4B users. With Apple breaking quarterly, annually and all kinds of records, one can’t help, but wonder what the company would have achieved if 2020 didn’t have a pandemic?
The Great Market of China?
Apple’s record-breaking performance was decided by capturing one of the biggest smartphone markets in the world, China. As per Cook, two of the top three selling smartphones in China were from Apple. Upgraders in China also set an all-time record while the overall iPhone sales rose about 57%.
Avoiding the exact numbers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the numbers for the iPhone active users could’ve been even better if not for the multiple production halts due to the pandemic and lockdown. (Ya think?)
Apple’s announcement comes during enormous quarters for the company, in which it doubled its iPhone sales in India (Q4 2020), and set an all-time revenue record (Q1 2021). With such huge numbers becoming just another landmark for Apple in such a small span, and Apple trying to enter almost all the industries now, we wonder if there’s any stopping it. What do you think of Apple’s performance and what does this have in store for India? Let us know in the comments below.