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Report: One in Four Smartphones Are Now iPhones

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Nearly one in four active smartphones worldwide are now iPhones, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.

iPhone-17-Colors.jpg

The findings from Counterpoint's Smartphone Installed Base Tracker show that the global installed base of active smartphones grew 2% in 2025, driven primarily by lengthening replacement cycles and the continued circulation of second-life devices. Unlike shipment figures, which measure yearly sales, installed base data reflects the total number of devices currently in use, making it a key indicator of long-term platform choices.

Apple now leads the global active smartphone installed base with roughly one in four devices in use being an iPhone. The firm attributes this position to a combination of strong user loyalty, integrated services, and the broader Apple ecosystem.

The report also claims that Apple added more net new active smartphone devices in 2025 than the next seven leading smartphone manufacturers combined, reflecting the company's ability to attract and retain users even as global smartphone growth slows and hardware innovation becomes more incremental.

Samsung ranked second with approximately one-fifth of the global active smartphone installed base. Together, Apple and Samsung accounted for 44% of the global installed base in 2025.

The gap between Apple and Samsung as the two market leaders and the rest of the industry is widening. The two companies are the only smartphone manufacturers to surpass one billion active devices globally.

counterpoint-200m-devices.png


Other brands, including Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo, form a second tier with large but smaller installed bases built largely through midrange and upper-midrange devices. Notably, Transsion Group has grown its installed base through affordable devices targeted at price-sensitive markets in regions such as the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. HONOR is the most recent brand to surpass 200 million active devices, while Motorola and realme are approaching that milestone.

Apple's vast base of installed devices is attributed to a number of additional trends that favor premium smartphones. For example, device replacement cycles have extended to nearly four years as hardware improvements become more incremental and device durability improves. Premium devices typically receive longer software support, maintain higher resale value, and remain in active use longer, often through to second owners. Repeat purchases are also likely.

The report added that differentiation is increasingly shifting toward software and ecosystem integration as hardware innovation slows. Features such as on-device artificial intelligence, camera software, productivity tools, and cross-device integration are said to be key value drivers that help build long-term loyalty and increase usage. See Counterpoint Research's full report for more information.

Article Link: Report: One in Four Smartphones Are Now iPhones
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/11/one-in-four-smartphones-iphones/
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nfl46 said:
In the United States, it seems like 3/4th of smartphones are iPhones.
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In think in the US it's closer to 60% Apple, 20% Samsung, a few percent each for Motorola and Google, and 10% "the rest". There are very few cell phones in the US by Chinese manufacturers (Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo etc) but in the rest of the world (outside China and the US) they have a growing presence as they represent excellent value particularly in the low- to mid-range market ... basically iPhone specs at mid-range prices ... assuming you can tolerate Android or clones of it.
 
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bluecoast said:
With such a huge installed base, you’d have thought that Apple would feel that they have a huge responsibility to release well optimised versions of iOS with a rock solid UX and free of any UX related bugs.

Evidently not.
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They could....but they prefer to release new features than fixing and making rock solid OS
 
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We need some competition to keep Apple doing more than the next money squeeze. It’s like when google could not grow anymore because they were so good everyone was using them so they made the search engine worst so you have to search more and see more ads…
 
DrRadon said:
We need some competition to keep Apple doing more than the next money squeeze. It’s like when google could not grow anymore because they were so good everyone was using them so they made the search engine worst so you have to search more and see more ads…
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It’s not an easy market. Apple and Google got in on the ground floor of the smartphone revolution. Apple is just popular and well known.
 
dominiongamma said:
Not bad news but I expected Apple to capture more of the market after all these years, 1/4 isn’t high
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Don’t forget that Apple only cares/competes in the high end of the market. So that number, which is super impressive considering how many phone manufacturers there are, is even more so when you factor the average iPhone price into it. They are holding over 80% of the global smartphone market profit.
 
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I for one am switching back to Android for my next phone. Too many things I dislike about iphones and ios. They are perfectly fine but not as good of a user experience for me as compared to Android phones. I do wish the US would have more Android phone choices like we had a few years ago (I miss LG, HTC and higher end Motorola phones).
 
dominiongamma said:
Not bad news but I expected Apple to capture more of the market after all these years, 1/4 isn’t high
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They priced themselves out of much of the market, including me.

To answer another point, I have a Motorola. $129 for a 128 GB phone. It makes and receives calls, and it sends and receives texts. Most importantly it blocks calls really well. My previous flip phone couldn't do that. Battery life is over a week.

Samsung had a $199 phone that was in the running as well, but it had no extras features worth $70.
 
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michsu said:
If others were allowed to work in the US, Apple’s market share will drop. Lots of people will switch to ones like Huawei or Xiaomi.
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The US is not such an attractive market for Chinese phone makers when there are more receptive ones in, for example, Indonesia (pop 285M), Brazil (213M) and middle eastern countries (500M), not to mention the Indian Subcontinent (1900M). Of course the US market is not completely negligible either.

There is currently a worldwide trend to diversify trade away from the US and grow it within the 96% of the population who are not in the US.
 
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What’s funny is more retailers are requiring smart phones to make in store purchases, and they don’t accept just any phone you must have one that is less than five years old.

Sam’s Club is moving that way where they’re eliminating all the registers and you must use a modern smart phone, they already did that to the food court, you can’t buy a hotdog anymore without a 2021 or newer smart phone runs iOS 16 or higher.
I busted their chops when I came in with my iPhone 6 and they tried to show me how to download the app and for some reason it didn’t work and then they said I have to buy a newer iphone.
Some of the senior citizens that shop there are still using flip phones for simplicity and less confusion, Sam’s Club is telling them they don’t want them as customers anymore. They forget that the older generation has the money.
 
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dominiongamma said:
Not bad news but I expected Apple to capture more of the market after all these years, 1/4 isn’t high
Click to expand...
In years gone by, Apple could only claim somewhere less than 10% of home computing market -- and yet, that still marked them as a driving influencer, watched by all and imitated by many. More importantly, their efforts with macOS are what made them able to forge iOS into the force multiplier that it is today.

And so, two things can be true: laying claim to 25% of the market doesn't make them the only influential mover in the mobile industry... but it does make them one of the more influential movers.
 
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