Apple has overtaken Android units to account for greater than half of smartphones used within the US, giving the iPhone maker an edge over its rival because it pushes into sectors together with finance and healthcare.

The 50 per cent landmark — the iPhone’s highest share because it launched in 2007 — was first handed within the quarter ending in June, in keeping with knowledge from Counterpoint Analysis. Some 150 units utilizing Google’s Android working system, led by Samsung and Lenovo, accounted for the remaining.

“Working techniques are like religions — by no means important modifications. However over the previous 4 years the stream has persistently been Android to iOS,” mentioned Counterpoint’s analysis director, Jeff Fieldhack. “It is a huge milestone that we may see replicated in different prosperous international locations throughout the globe.”

The numbers are based mostly on smartphones in use, generally known as the “energetic put in base”, what Apple finance chief Luca Maestri dubbed “the engine for our firm” in a July earnings name.

It is a wider and extra significant class than new telephone shipments, which fluctuate from quarter to quarter and have already demonstrated Apple’s newfound energy.

The energetic put in base takes into consideration the thousands and thousands of individuals introduced into Apple’s ecosystem by means of the used telephone market, in addition to those that use iPhones bought years in the past.

Ben Wooden, analyst at CCS Perception, mentioned: “It’s not that we’re seeing an enormous 12 months the place Apple grows its market share 10 or 15 per cent, however there’s this sluggish burn the place they quietly simply seize extra share yearly.”

Android-powered smartphones first went on sale in 2008, a 12 months after the iPhone debuted, and overtook the iOS-installed base in 2010, in keeping with NPD Group. Within the three earlier years, Apple by no means had something close to 50 per cent market share, as gross sales have been dominated by Nokia, Motorola, Home windows and BlackBerry.

As Apple chief government Tim Cook dinner prepares to unveil the iPhone 14 on Wednesday, the milestone suggests the corporate has by no means been in a extra aggressive place regardless of persistent criticism that it has misplaced its revolutionary edge.

The group’s keynote autumn occasion in recent times has been far more about developments to present devices reasonably than firm founder Steve Jobs’s well-known “yet one more factor” product launches.

Apple is anticipated to unveil the brand new iPhones at its first in-person occasion for the reason that onset of Covid-19, in Cupertino, California. Analysts count on higher cameras and a smaller “notch” within the show the place sensors are held, plus a extra rugged model of the Apple Watch.

Below Cook dinner, the iPhone, a disruptive product that spawned whole industries, has made Apple the biggest firm on the earth, with a market capitalisation of $2.5tn.

“Cook dinner has taken what Jobs gave him and has constructed an empire out of this,” Wooden mentioned. “As a result of anybody who buys an iPhone — whether or not it’s second-hand, third-hand, or fourth-hand — will in all probability give Apple some cash shopping for apps, paying for iCloud, utilizing Apple Music, or transacting on Apple Pay. And that’s a mannequin that nobody else, actually, has been capable of replicate.”

With iPhone penetration reaching saturation, Cook dinner has pushed into films and TV, promoting and funds and health and well being, leveraging an put in world base for iPhones that surpassed 1bn in 2020.

The result’s a various set of “companies” income that persistently grows in double-digits and delivers revenue margins north of 70 per cent — two instances the profitability of its {hardware} enterprise.

The variety of folks paying charges to this array of companies reached 860mn within the June quarter — roughly double the variety of Netflix and Disney-Plus subscribers mixed.

Analysts noticed loads of room for Apple to extend its market share given how the remainder of the world stays Android-dominant, largely due to its selection and decrease value. Cook dinner lately mentioned the group had “set a June quarter report for switchers” — customers leaving Android for iOS.