Sales of Apple's iOS devices now equal total Windows PC sales

Posted:
in iPhone edited July 2015
Sales of Apple's iOS lineup -- comprised of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch -- has now matched annual sales of devices running the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows platform.


Chart via Benedict Evans.


The new milestone for Apple was noted this week by analyst Benedict Evans, culled from data provided by Gartner, Apple, and a16z. It shows that while annual Windows PC sales have fluctuated around the 300 million mark since 2008, iOS devices have continued their meteoric rise.

Though iOS devices include the iPad and iPod touch, recent growth has been driven solely by the iPhone. Sales of the iPad and iPod, meanwhile, have shrunk in recent years, but tremendous iPhone growth has carried the iOS platform to new heights.

Annual sales of devices running Google's Android platform had already surpassed Windows PCs long ago --?in March of 2012.

The total install base of Windows machines remains much larger, at 1.5 billion. But PCs also have a much longer upgrade cycle than mobile phones, helping to push annual iOS sales even with Windows computers.

iPhone sales alone have reached more than 222 million units over the last four quarters. Apple also revealed in January that it shipped its one-billionth iOS device in the holiday 2014 season.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has made it clear that he sees plenty of room to grow iPhone sales going forward, even after the device has reached such heights. In his company's quarterly earnings conference call earlier this week, he revealed that just 27 percent of the iPhone installed base has upgraded to the iPhone 6 series, suggesting that the anticipated "iPhone 6s" may not lose momentum.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    But but but...Apple should have reached that mark last year. Sell!

    Seriously, I wonder which made more revenue and profit. That would be an interesting number!
  • Reply 2 of 28
    brakkenbrakken Posts: 687member
    As the prices of each year's Macs goes down, and Apple continues giving great reasons for switching, and MS continues to make people hate everything Windows (not all, naturally), MS will continue down.

    GOOD!

    I really hope Nadella can undo Gates/Ballmer and make a great company out of MS. I want to be tempted, regardless of whether it would be successful.

    I'm also hoping new OS choices come out of Japan, China, India, South America and Europe. The way Apple is integrating soft/hardware, it would make sense for a selection of companies to pool resources and create an integrated user experience, like Apple. MS will need more than itself.
  • Reply 3 of 28
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    The biggest question for Microsoft is how did they miss the mobile boat totally? From Ballmer laughing at the iPhone to the embarrassing market share of Windows Phone. I mean they didn’t even see it coming.

  • Reply 4 of 28
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member

    Ha, I remember making this prediction about 6 years ago. People thought I was nuts.

  • Reply 5 of 28
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post

     

    The biggest question for Microsoft is how did they miss the mobile boat totally? From Ballmer laughing at the iPhone to the embarrassing market share of Windows Phone. I mean they didn’t even see it coming.




    They saw it coming.  They tried to succeed in mobile, but they ended up like a deer in the headlights.

  • Reply 6 of 28
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    sog35 wrote: »
    I can't believe over 300,000,000 Windows computers are being sold.  Who are buying these things?
    My wife is due for a new computer at work. She has mostly been using her personal MacBook Pro because the Dell crap on her desk is a hunk of junk.
    Some people in the building have Macs so she asked her boss if she could get an iMac. Boss said "Sure--whatever works best for you."
    Of course, someone overruled her boss. She is going to get a shiny new hunk of junk Dell. (And I'm going to have to buy her a new MacBook Pro soon. Crappity crap crap.)

    I imagine something akin to this is happening 200,000,000 times a year...
  • Reply 7 of 28
    isteelersisteelers Posts: 738member
    sog35 wrote: »
    I can't believe over 300,000,000 Windows computers are being sold.  Who are buying these things?

    My guess would be people who can't afford the entry price of an Apple machine. There are also the gamers, though they probably build their own if it's not a laptop.
  • Reply 8 of 28
    ddawson100ddawson100 Posts: 513member

    Poor Ballmer gets a heart attack...

  • Reply 9 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    I can't believe over 300,000,000 Windows computers are being sold.  Who are buying these things?




    Yes, there's this place called the enterprise,( noun  /?ent?(r)?pra?z/) many of them still have Windows only applications. Things like VisualStudio, Access, etc. As well as people who game, or people who develop for Windows...please, take off the blinders. You realize that no sane person expected the PC to just die off.

  • Reply 10 of 28

    Exactly, My wife's clinic has two apps that are windows only (including windows server) - so we have 5 surface pro 3s and 6 dell PCs. It takes forever to maintain all those machines and there are endless issues - but we are stuck so we keep buying more PCs... (however she works at home on a macbook air!)

  • Reply 11 of 28
    lwiolwio Posts: 110member
    So much for windows everywhere it's OS X/ios, which are essentially the same, everywhere.
  • Reply 12 of 28
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    I can't believe over 300,000,000 Windows computers are being sold.  Who are buying these things?


    Corporates. They're still Windows centric.

  • Reply 13 of 28
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by delreyjones View Post

     



    They saw it coming.  They tried to succeed in mobile, but they ended up like a deer in the headlights.




    Or as I like to say, like a head in deerlights :)

     

    They just took way to long to respond. And then even after that, people who did adopt Windows Phone got screwed when they couldn't upgrade from Windows Phone 7 to 8.

  • Reply 14 of 28
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post





    My wife is due for a new computer at work. She has mostly been using her personal MacBook Pro because the Dell crap on her desk is a hunk of junk.

    Some people in the building have Macs so she asked her boss if she could get an iMac. Boss said "Sure--whatever works best for you."

    Of course, someone overruled her boss. She is going to get a shiny new hunk of junk Dell. (And I'm going to have to buy her a new MacBook Pro soon. Crappity crap crap.)



    I imagine something akin to this is happening 200,000,000 times a year...



    I was also offered a Dell. I chose to use my own personal machine. I remote into a VDI at the office anyway, so I don't need a Dell blob on my desk using extra electricity, adding heat and noise into my environment :)

  • Reply 15 of 28
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  • Reply 16 of 28
    jungmark wrote: »
    But but but...Apple should have reached that mark last year. Sell!

    Seriously, I wonder which made more revenue and profit. That would be an interesting number!

    You mean you don't know?

    Apple iPhone business is larger than all of Microsoft's businesses put together. Also, if you remove the iPhone, Apple's remaining business are STILL larger than all of Microsoft's business put together.
  • Reply 17 of 28
    ddawson100 wrote: »
    Poor Ballmer gets a heart attack...

    Denial helps. Pretending you're still the old dominant Microsoft helps. Tell yourself everything will be just fine helps.

    [VIDEO]
  • Reply 18 of 28
    jimdreamworxjimdreamworx Posts: 1,095member

    Does the Windows PCs sold number include people running Boot Camp?

     

    You may not think it's a lot, but I have experience in a few colleges where there are thousands of dual boots - and that's just me.

  • Reply 19 of 28
    thepixeldocthepixeldoc Posts: 2,257member
    I would love to see a breakdown of Windows Home vs. Pro vs. Enterprise licenses.

    Right about the same time that I would like to see Androids on par with the 5c vs. Somewhat-Smart-Phone vs. Android Other devices which includes Feature-Plus-Throwaway-Phones.

    The truth would be far too upsetting to the industry I'm sure.
  • Reply 20 of 28
    kmanvankmanvan Posts: 10member
    Isn't this an apples to oranges comparison?

    I'm not going to replace an ipod touch or ipad with a Windows PC/Laptop or vice versa. They are completely different things. One is cheap-ish consumer device, the other is either a home or business computer.

    This stat is pretty pointless.

    As to the larger suggestion that this means Apple is replacing PCs, that is definitely the case for some people but I know for myself that when I'm doing serious business work on my MacBook pro, I'm more often than not doing on Windows 8/Windows 10 VMs on Fusion. For pure productivity I hate to say it, but you can be more productive on a Windows box IMHO. I'm probably going back to PC on my next laptop refresh.
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