According to Tim Cook, the head honcho over at Apple and a man who seems to embrace the fact that he talks like a background South Park character, the iPhone has an active install base of over 1 billion users. That means roughly a seventh of the world’s entire population currently has one or more iPhones in use which is pretty mind-boggling if you think about it.

Given how Apple has long supported older hardware with continuous software updates well past the lifespan of the device, it’s no wonder Apple has managed to maintain such a massive user base. It might also be the fact that iPhones are generally just really good phones that last way longer than many competitors. That’s probably a factor too.

iPhones run the world

The new statistic was revealed by Tim Cook in a recent Apple earning’s call wherein it was explained that the launch of the iPhone 12 helped increase numbers. Before Q4, Apple was sitting on a user base of 900 million yet the latest iPhone pushed it to 1 billion.

Speaking to Reuters, Cook also revealed that Apple has grown significantly in China which also helped them breach the billion ceiling. “We saw the largest number of upgraders that we’ve ever seen in a quarter,” said Cook when speaking to the success of the iPhone 12.

The most surprising part of the earnings call was that the entire install base of Apple hardware is currently sitting at 1.65 billion which goes to show that the iPhone represents a massive chunk of that statistic. Given all those folks embedded in that ecosystem, one has to hope that they’ve all updated their hardware given the recent scare surrounding a potential security breach.

(Source: Engadget)