Apple says it has 1.8 billion active devices

Following Apple’s impressive quarterly results, the company revealed in an earnings call that it now has 1.8 billion active devices.

That’s up from the 1.65 billion Apple reported a year ago and the 1.5 billion active devices reported in January 2020. CEO Tim Cook didn’t detail how that number breaks down into devices during the call, but The Verge notes that the company crossed the 1 billion active iPhones milestone a year ago.

Apple hit 900 million active iPhone users in 2019 and sold its billionth iPhone in 2016.

The company counts a device as active as long as it has engaged with an Apple service within the past 90 days. With that in mind, the 1.8 billion number covers a wide range of Apple devices.

Google, on the other hand, revealed last year that there were over 3 billion active Android devices with access to the Play Store. However, as The Verge notes, the true number of Android devices is likely much higher when you factor in Android-based devices with alternative app stores (for example, Amazon’s Fire tablets).

Microsoft revealed in January 2022 that there were 1.4 billion active Windows 10 and 11 devices — that includes the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, which count as Windows 10 devices.

While interesting, the numbers aren’t necessarily the best for comparisons given that they can cover different devices. For example, Microsoft numbers cover PCs and some Xbox consoles, while Apple’s include Mac computers, iPhones and more. A more interesting comparison, in my opinion, would be the number of active Mac computers to the number of active Windows PCs, or the number of active iPhones to the number of active Android phones.

Source: The Verge