Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world. It was the first US-based company to be worth $1 trillion and only the second modern company to do so, after PetroChina. Arguably its most famous products are the iPhone and the iPad. Both of these devices run on Apple’s proprietary mobile operating software called iOS. Although, from 2019, iPads have been given their own Operating System called iPadOS.
It was originally released in 2007 with the first iPhone. It was then later extended to power the iPod series as well and, eventually, the iPads. It has been upgraded with 13 versions, with the current version, iOS 13, only working on devices with more than 2 GB. iOS is also seamlessly integrated with Siri, Apple’s Virtual Assistant. This allows Siri to control the whole phone as the user directs.
Quick Facts
iOS has earned itself a reputation for being a fast and smooth experience. Apple works hard to maintain this image and consistently updates iOS to reflect innovations. So, let’s take a cue from Apple and look at some facts really quickly.
- Apple has sold more than 2 billion iOS devices.
- 50% of all Apple mobile devices run iOS 13.
- Apple had to purchase the license for the name ‘iOS’ and ‘iPhone’ from Cisco Systems.
- 18% of all mobile devices are iOS devices.
- 62.98% of all tablets in the world use iOS/iPadOS
- Apple was established on April Fool’s Day 1976. Thank god it wasn’t just a prank!
Facts and statistics about iOS
It is difficult to imagine what would have happened if iOS devices hadn’t taken the world by storm. iOS’ popularity has only grown exponentially since its release 2007. It has been attributed to a variety of factors, from an amazing camera to a seamless software integration between the various existing Apple products.
No matter what the cause of iOS’ meteoric rise was, today, it stands as one of the most popular operating systems in the world, with arguably the most recognized logo stamped all across it. Let’s take a look into this cornerstone of the modern technological world, and marvel at the mind-boggling statistics associated with it.
1. Apple’s stock has grown by almost 16,000% since 2005: Apple (traded as AAPL) became a publicly-traded company in 1980. From 1980 to 2005, it was traded at a relatively stable value, going from $0.80 to $1.5. However, this all changed in 2005, after the announcement of the iPhone. The stock price rocketed up from $1.67 to $267.84 in November 2019. This is an increase of almost 16,000%! For reference, this means if someone held just $100 worth of Apple’s stock in 2005, it would be worth a jaw-dropping $1.6 million. After adding in the various dividends and incentives, this would equate to almost $2.5 million.
(Source: Inside Indiana Business)
2. iOS devices earn 87% of all profits from smart devices but only sold 22.9% of the total units: Apple has always been associated with premium devices, with an appropriately high price tag. This price tag causes a gigantic discrepancy when it comes to units sold, and profits garnered. Apple sold 22.9% of all units, while its chief competitor, Samsung, sold 31.36%. Even with a significantly higher number of devices sold, Samsung only has 10% of the total profits.
(Source: Investor)
3. Apple has $285.1 billion in cash, mainly contributed by iOS devices: Apple’s huge profit margins have rocketed the company into being the highest valued companies in the world, currently valued at $1107 trillion. The most surprising fact about this valuation is the fact that Apple has $285 billion in direct cash reserves. This is a hilariously large amount of money, considering the fact that only nine countries in the world have more cash than Apple.
(Source: CNBC)
4. 88% of all iOS users use the latest versions, compared to Android’s 6%: Apple is well known for rolling out consistent updates. Users are heavily incentivized to install these updates, with Apple even admitting that older updates are purposefully slowed down. This leads to an adoption rate of over 88%, well over the 6% adoption rate for Android OS.
(Source: Apple)
5. 84% of all iPad users use the latest versions of iPadOS: Since the introduction of iPadOS alongside iOS 13, it had rapidly risen in popularity. It’s the first time iPads have been given their dedicated OS, and according to most users, it offers a much smoother experience. So, just like its mobile counterpart and origin, iPadOS boasts of an adoption rate of 84%. Since Android doesn’t release a tablet-only OS, it is difficult to find a comparison metric, so 6% might be a good stand-in.
(Source: Apple)
6. Siri processes over 10 billion requests each month: Siri is Apple’s personal assistant that has come bundled with every iOS device since the release of iOS 5 in 2011. Its popularity has risen steadily since then, with up to 74% of the users stated that they interacted with Siri at least once a day, primarily while driving. This rise hit a peak when Apple stated that during the year of 2018, Siri was processing up to 10 billion requests each month. This means that at given second, Siri is working on over 3800 requests. She worked on 96,450 requests by the time you read this fact.
(Source: Apple)
7. iOS devices take more than 1 trillion photos each year: Ever since their release, Apple devices have been heavily lauded for their amazing cameras. These cameras only get better with each new iteration of the iPhones and iPads. As a result of these constantly improving cameras, iOS users are among the highest picture takers. According to Apple, their iOS devices take over one trillion photos each year, out of which at least 70% are uploaded to the iCloud service.
(Source: Apple)
8. iOS devices are responsible for the streaming of more than 54% of all podcasts: Podcasts have been steadily increasing in popularity. This has been exasperated by the introduction of services like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts, coming bundled with all iOS devices, is the most popular platform to listen to podcasts, totaling nearly 50 billion hours of podcasts already having been streamed. This accounts for a 54% share of the total market.
(Source: Music Oomph)
9. 45.64% of all voice assistant users use Siri: The name Siri has become ubiquitous with voice assistants. So, it hardly comes as a surprise that nearly half of all voice assistant users interact with Siri. Google Assistant is used by 30%, and Amazon’s Alexa is used by 17% of the users.
(Source: Voicebot)
10. Cydia, iOS’s jailbreak software, is named after an apple worm: iOS is notorious for being a completely closed system, not allowing for a lot of customization or the enabling of developer options. It also doesn’t allow any third-party apps to modify any system settings. To circumnavigate these restrictions, a lot of users opt to ‘jailbreak’ their devices, allowing them to take almost full control of iOS. The major software that allows for jailbreaking is ‘Cydia.’ So, obviously, Cydia’s creators decided to name the software after an actual worm that infects apples.
(Source: Redmond Pie)
11. iOS, and not Reverse-Flash, was responsible for Flash’s death: One of the biggest controversies surrounding the release of the much-awaited iPhone revolved around the lack of Flash support from iOS. At that point in time, Flash was the most used format for web browsers. Many analysts predicted that this lack of support would cause the iPhone to fail. From our comfortable position in the future, we can see how iPhone’s popularity and lack of support kickstarted the process that would lead to Flash’s eventual death.
(Source: Daring Fireball)
12. Apple has 132,000 employees: Apple directly employs a large number of people in its various offices and design centers. These employees range from technicians to advertisements to HR and PR. Of these thousands of employees, most of them are in the USA, with 28% being in California, developing iOS devices, alone.
(Source: Apple)
13. Apple sells 500 iOS devices every minute: It is no secret that the iPhone and iPads are Apple’s most popular products. They are sold at an astounding rate all over the world. According to Apple’s quarterly report, it can be extrapolated that Apple sells nearly 84 iOS devices every single second.
(Source: MacRumors)
14. On average an iOS device uses only 25 cents of electricity in a year: Mobile devices have grown from being the size of giant bricks to being able to fit comfortably in your pocket. The two major reasons for this shrinkage is the reducing size of transistors and the increasing efficiency of batteries. Apple uses a proprietary design of Lithium-Ion batteries in their iOS devices. These batteries only take $0.25 of electricity each year. iPads take a little more electricity than their iPhone counterparts.
(Source: Forbes)
15. Samsung supplies more than 35% of all components for iOS devices: Given the number of lawsuits that Samsung and Apple have lobbed at each other, it is easy to assume that they hate each other. However, that isn’t the case at all. In fact, Samsung actually creates a large number of components that go into an Apple device. They make the DRAM memory chips, the OLED screens, and several other small components that make up an iOS device. These components make as much as 35% of all components that Apple purchases for manufacturing iOS devices.
(Source: Forbes)
16. iOS’ ‘Today Tab’ is viewed by at least 1 million people every day: With the introduction of the ‘Today Tab,’ which displays all relevant news that the user wants, iOS itself has become the source of new for a lot of people. As many as 1 million people view this tab daily, relying on it heavily for the daily news. This tab has also faced some heavy criticism regarding Apple’s supposed censoring of some news articles, in particular relating to the Hong Kong protests.
(Source: Apple)
The App Store
iOS would be just be a bland background with a call and SMS button if it weren’t for the App Store. The App Store is where users can go to find an application for nearly any purpose. Various companies have risen and fallen simply due to their applications, and developers and publishers have earned billions of dollars via the App Store. The App Store is also one of the biggest revenue streams for Apple itself.
Now that we have understood the iOS itself, lets take a look into the app that makes it one of the most used platforms in the world.
17. Apple has paid over $100 billion to iOS developers: iOS would be nothing if it weren’t for the scores of third-party apps that populate the app store. Apple more than recognizes the role that these third-party app developers play in the popularity of their devices. These developers have been paid more than $100 billion in the 12 years of iOS’ existence.
(Source: VentureBeat)
18. 450,000 apps have been written in Apple’s proprietary programming language for iOS, SwiftUI: Knowing Apple’s draconian adherence to exclusivity andfocus on creating an Apple-only ecosystem, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they have their own programming language. While it is possible to write apps for iOS in other languages, SwiftUI, by virtue of being Apple’s own design, is by far the easiest way to write these apps. SwiftUI features a very intuitive drag and drop design for UI and design elements. Over 450,000 have been written on this platform, including everything from simple games to complex corporate applications.
(Source: VentureBeat)
19. App Store made twice as much profit as Google Play in 2018: Android is by far the most popular operating system for mobile devices in the world. It is currently powering over 75% of all mobile devices. However, this fact didn’t prevent Apple from completely eclipsing Google Play when it comes to profits, nearly doubling it even. This can again be put down to simply a ‘premium’ image that Apple maintains, allowing for a higher price tag on an average.
(Source: Cult of Mac)
20. More than 500 million people visit the App Store weekly: The App Store had long been one of the most criticized aspects of the iOS, until its complete overhaul in 2018 with the release of iOS 11. This let it rocket skyward, with an average of 500 million people visiting the App Store every week. The most impressive part about this is the fact that these people spend $1.4 weekly in the App Store.
(Source: App Inventiv)
21. The App Store has over 500,000 publishers, with over 2.2 million apps: Due to iOS’ massive reach and access to a userbase that spends an average of $79 yearly on apps, the App Store is very lucrative for publishers. Since its launch with 552 apps in 2007, the App Store has grown rapidly. As of March 2019, there were over half a million registered publishers on the App Store, with over 2 million total apps.
(Source: Mashable)
22. Over 130 billion apps have been downloaded for iOS devices: On average, each iOS user uses around nine apps daily, using up to 30 apps in a month. Since 2007, the total number of unique downloads from the App Store has reached an astounding figure of 130 billion. For reference, that equates to nearly 65 unique apps for every iOS device ever sold.
(Source: Tech Crunch)
23. More than 2600 apps are released for iOS every day: As we saw earlier, the App Store is a very lucrative platform for developers to publish apps. Even novice app makers can very successfully create amazing apps for the App Store using the easy to use SwiftUI. These factors lead to a veritable flood of apps coming into the market, at a rate of more than 2600 apps daily. This is, of course, balanced out by a high number of apps getting deleted as well.
(Source: Statista)
24. The most used iOS app of all time is WhatsApp Messenger: Among the millions of apps available for iOS users, the most used app is WhatsApp messenger. This is primarily due to the fact that WhatsApp’s service is completely free and uses next to no data. It also allows for voice and video calls over the internet. Now with the spread of WhatsApp pay, the usage of the app is just going to grow.
(Source: Daily Mail)
25. 25% of all apps on iOS are games: iOS applications allow their users to do a host of things. Chief among these things is entertainment. Games dominate the app store, with as many as a quarter of all the apps on the store being some sort of a game. However, even though so many of the apps are games, only 65% of users have a game on their phones.
(Source: Statista)
26. iOS users spend 87% of their internet time on apps, and only 13% on web browsers: Most applications running on iOS are enabled to use the internet for a variety of purposes. These purposes range from online stores to news and weather. This allows iOS users to obtain almost all the information and services they need from the apps they download. Therefore, the internet usage share of apps far exceeds the share of browsers. As much as 87% of all the time spent on the internet by iOS users is on apps.
(Source: Comscore)
27. The Bible is the second highest-rated app for iOS: Christianity is the most popular religion in the world right now, and the Bible is the most read book in the world. However, the Bible app for iOS is only the second-highest rated app in the world. While the Bible may allow its readers some spiritual comfort, the highest-rated app is an app that aids its users in meditation with scientifically proven methods. Ironically, in this case, science has definitely trumped religion.
(Source: Business Insider)
28. The average price of an app for iOS is $0.96, and for games, it is $0.51: The App Store features a huge array of paid apps. These paid apps consist of both standard apps and games. The minimum amount that an app can be priced for is $0.25, and the maximum amount is $999.99. However, most apps are priced under $5, with an average of $0.96 for apps and $0.51 for games.
(Source: Statista)
29. Only 16% of the apps on the App Store have a rating: While the number of apps and their downloads has increased to the millions, the number of people rating them hasn’t. According to the App Store statistics given out by Apple, only around 315,000 even have a single rating. The abysmal rating rate might be due to the fact that, unlike the Google Play Store, the App Store requires users to enter their credentials every time to enter a rating.
(Source: Apple)
30. Apple made $300 million via the App Store on New Year’s Day 2018: As we have seen, the App Store was redesigned with OS 11’s release. This release was so well received that on 1st January 2018, Apple made more than $300 million via the App Store. This amount only climbed throughout the month, with around $870 million being earned in January itself.
(Source: Business Wire)