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Over 100 Million iPhones Now in Use in U.S., Nearly Two-Thirds Are iPhone 6 or Later

navaira said:
Interesting to see 5C and 5S holding so strong.
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There is many people out there that were happy with an iPhone 5's size. Also, 5C and 5S are actually very affordable. You can get a 5C brand new for $299 or less through many prepaid carriers, or $349 directly from Apple.
 
Wow! just shows a total lack of individuality in that country - time to rename it, iClone 6s or something similar.
 
United States of iPhone. No president has gotten 100 million popular vote at election. iPhone should run for president in 2016. It should at least do well with immigration, but it could be terrible with foreign policy
 
Michael Scrip said:
But they do this survey every quarter. So they have data over many years.
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The flaw is not just the low number of surveyed people. The bigger flaw is in the fact that they ask people who just bought something new from Apple. This is very likely to be the group of people that has lost or broken an older iPhone.

They ask it over many years, but they always ask recent buyers. Probably the easiest way to do it and probably the group that interests them them most, but not the best source for a finding out how many of each model is in use.
And they also have a lot of data on how long people tend to keep their phones.
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If they acquired that data in the same way, it's not making it better.
-- "CIRP analyzes data on iPhone buyers, their new model selection, and their prior phones and compares that to iPhone sales data adjusted to the U.S. market."

And remember... the bars on the chart show how many iPhones are in-use.
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This helps explaining why the iPhone 5 is sliced in three in the last quarter, according to this chart. This seems not very realistic. The 5 is still holding up fine under the latest iOS version so there is no reason why it would be discarded so dramatically in just 3 months.

And remember... the bars on the chart show how many iPhones are in-use.
Let's pick a starting point for the iPhone 6, for example. The survey in Sept 2014 found that people purchased an iPhone 6. CIRP has that number.

The next survey in December 2014 found that people purchased an iPhone 6 then too. CIRP has that new number... and they add that number to the number from the earlier survey. That's why the bar on the chart gets longer.
[…]
And so on...

It's safe to say that the people who purchased an iPhone 6 in September are still using it the following March. Most people keep iPhones for over a year... mostly two years.
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Probably true, but it's not how you make a chart. If they would make charts based on assumptions in the line of it's safe to say they would never find unexpected phenomena and more exact details like when curves break, while that is exactly what you would want to find – if there are any.

So the chart shows more iPhone 6 in-use as more people buy them... and as people use existing iPhone 6

Finally... whatever data they have collected from those 500 surveys... they extrapolate that with the estimated numbers of US iPhone sales.

Is it perfect? Nope. But it gives you an idea. Apple knows EXACTLY how many iPhones are in-use in every country around the globe. But since they won't share those numbers... this is what we have to do.
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Now you're spot on. Apple knows, but Macrumors heading gives the chart a little twist of you don't read the article closely (which a lot of us don't).

This article's heading says 'US iPhones in use', but this chart shows how many iPhones are in use by US buyers of new iPhones. Quite a difference from the chart of the total US iPhones in use.
 
One third of the whole population is using an iphone? Meh, I don't believe that number. It's impossible in my opinion.
 
pukifloyd said:
That is an insane number of people! I recently switched from Android and couldn't be happier.
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Considering that Ericsson reports that 13.8x more Android users switched to iPhone than Apple users switching to Android, it looks like you are one of the minority.
 
Fancuku said:
One third of the whole population is using an iphone? Meh, I don't believe that number. It's impossible in my opinion.
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Most surveys I've seen have pegged the U.S. iPhone market share close to 50%. Globally is a different story though.
 
CmdrLaForge said:
With my iPhone 5 I am clearly in the minority.
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Nah, I am going to try and go 3 years deep with my 6 Plus, this time, to enjoy an extra $60 a month for a 18 months. You are just happy with the model you got (iPhone 5). I am finally happy with the model I got, for me all it took was 128 GB. I think I'll be a 3 year man from here on out.

Oh btw, that bar graph is amazing the way it flows.

Laters...
 
I know several people - 7-8 actually including my self - who are holding out for a 4" phone (or at least a form factor that facilitates one-hand use and fits comfortably in a shirt/pants pocket), even tho their models are not compatible w/ A-Pay. A well-featured 4" iPhone would make a lot of folks happy.
 
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snipper said:
This article's heading says 'US iPhones in use', but this chart shows how many iPhones are in use by US buyers of new iPhones. Quite a difference from the chart of the total US iPhones in use.
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How much different would it be? Do you think it would be higher or lower than the 101 million they are claiming?

I just bought an iPhone 6S Plus. I'm a new buyer. Of course that iPhone is in-use... it's brand new. And it will remain in-use for the next 2 years.

In the next quarter... someone else will buy an iPhone 6S Plus. They will be a new user and their phone will be in-use.

But my iPhone will also be in-use even though I'm not a new buyer.

Isn't that what the chart is showing? New iPhones being added to an existing pool of in-use iPhones?

All iPhones are purchased new at some point.

So is the issue that hand-me-down iPhones aren't included in this survey? So new iPhone purchases alone don't tell the whole story?

I'm just trying to figure out the error here. I thought I understood what is going on here... maybe not.

Perhaps Consumer Intelligence Research Partners is wrong?
 
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Yes but how many are refusing to upgrade to iOS 9 because of Apple's refusal to support near-modern OS X hardware. Me!
 
I'd agree with this.. however a company that is selling iPhones like hotcakes at a bake sale in seconds, would amount to something too.

Why do we here so many iphones have doubled selling over a given release weekend ? Everyone wants their hands on one.. its the only the the others who hold back ..... Why give up the cash just because....

...... I don't go for any real stats anyway.. It's better to make fun of the "box" :)
 
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garirry said:
I guess planned obsolescence worked then. :rolleyes:
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If they really do do plan obsolescence, then it's by far the worst planned thing Apple does!

I mean, who's idea was it to support the soon to be 5 year old iPhone 4S on the brand new iOS for another whole year?!?
 
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polterbyte said:
Where did all those iPhone 5 go? I'd expect 4Ss and older to be out of commission, but not the 5.
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It has to with the 2 year contracts that a lot of people are on. The 5 came out 3 years ago so they have been replaced in the last few months by the 6. In the next few months we will see the 5C and the 5S being replaced by the 6S.
 
btrach144 said:
How are the 6s and 6SP bars so small? I thought they were the best selling iPhones yet. Shouldn't they have more share than the 6 and 6P?
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The date of the graph is September 2015. They had hardly been for sale at that point.
 
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touchstoned said:
I gave my 5s to a younger friend and he still hasn't bought cell service, but uses iMessage and iCloud over wifi. He seems pretty happy as it is his first smartphone. I think the 5S will really hold up well because it has 64bit A7 and its performance is still on par with Cheaper android phones. I used it with iOS 9 and other than a couple animations it was very smooth.

I'm hoping this 6S I have will hold up just as well. It is amazingly fast.
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I still have an iPhone 5S and it performs extremely well, as it always has. The only 2 compelling reasons for updating an iPhone 5S are basically the small screen size and the lack of NFC for Apple Pay.
 
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jbsiii said:
I know several people - 7-8 actually including my self - who are holding out for a 4" phone (or at least a form factor that facilitates one-hand use and fits comfortably in a shirt/pants pocket), even tho their models are not compatible w/ A-Pay. A well-featured 4" iPhone would make a lot of folks happy.
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There are rumours about Apple bringing out a 4" iPhone mini, but I am not sure how reliable those are.
 
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