What kind of smartphone is in your hand right now?
Most likely it’s an Apple (AAPL) made iPhone, which for the first time has surpassed other smartphones that use Android operating system.
According to analytics compiled by Counterpoint Research, there are now more iPhones in use in the U.S. than any other type of smartphone, including any that use Alphabet (GOOGL)-owned Google’s Android operating system and apps.
Specifically, the iPhone overtook the entire Android ecosystem in June to claim 50% U.S. market share, allowing the tech giant to achieve its highest-ever share of the American smartphone market since the iPhone debuted in June 2007.
Apple's iPhone takes the pole position over Android-run smartphones on the back of the iPhone’s “active installed base,” a metric that takes into account all the people who are using an iOS device after purchasing one used.
It’s all excellent news for Apple, which is set to reveal its latest slew of gadgets including the hotly anticipated iPhone 14 and a 14 Max at its 'Far Out' product launch event, scheduled for 10:00 am P.T. in Cupertino, California, on Wednesday.
The company is likely to also include new versions of its Apple Watch, alongside previously announced operating system upgrades and the expansion of its homemade A15 chip.
In the early days of the iPhone, iOS (then known as iPhone OS) never had anywhere near 50% market share. At that time, companies like Blackberry, Nokia and Motorola dominated the smartphone space. By 2010, two years after its debut, Android overtook iOS to claim the larger install base.
Since then, Google’s mobile operating system has been the dominant force in the global smartphone market, claiming more than 70% market share as of 2022, according to Statcounter.
To that point, Apple dominated the premium smartphone market in Q2 2022, with the iPhone representing 57% of all U.S. sales, according to Counterpoint Research.
Apple has been preparing for ongoing iPhone demand this year, despite a pullback in global consumer sentiment and a cautious outlook from its main assembler Foxconn last month.
Foxconn in August said it sees current-quarter smartphone revenue to come in flat compared to last year, citing "geopolitics, inflationary pressure, and the covid pandemic."
Apple typically accounts for around half of Taiwan-based Foxconn's annual revenue.
