On June 29th 2007, Apple first begin selling its then iconic smartphone the "iPhone" which with multiple iterations transformed Apple into one of the richest enterprises on the planet. The leaders in the pre-iPhone era surely launched touchscreen phones that were somewhat smarter for the time with hosts of productivity features powered by Palm OS or Windows Mobile OS. But the amalgamation of finger based touchscreen, slicker software (iOS) in iPhone buoyed by the growing ecosystem of third party developers creating innovative applications was the game changer for Apple. Lots has changed in the last ten years, as the mobile phone industry has undergone dramatic shifts with advent of iPhone as well as the simultaneous 'democratisation' of smartphone by Google's Android platform and its derivatives.
iPhone undoubtedly is the most popular, revenue generating and profit making hardware ever made by any technology company. Apple has grown a massive cash cow:
- Cumulative iPhone Units Sold: 1.17 Billion
- Cumulative iPhone Revenues: US$ 775 Billion
- Cumulative iPhone Profits: US$ 250 Billion
Over the decade since iPhone and iOS, Apple has amassed more than 2.5 million applications on its App Store via 16 million registered developers and in the process paid out more than US$70 Billion to developers and seen more than 180 billion app downloads. Apple's services from iCloud to Music to Maps to iMessage have millions of users with Siri seeing almsot 400 million active users globally. With the advent of iOS11 and thus ARKit, Apple aims to be the number one player in Augmented Reality space as it expects iOS11 roll out to reach more than 200 million iOS users in just a few months after launch.
Apple still has lots of tricks up it sleeves to keep its loyal base interested in its products, offerings and ecosystem.
Author
Neil Shah
Neil is a sought-after frequently-quoted Industry Analyst with a wide spectrum of rich multifunctional experience. He is a knowledgeable, adept, and accomplished strategist. In the last 18 years he has offered expert strategic advice that has been highly regarded across different industries especially in telecom. Prior to Counterpoint, Neil worked at Strategy Analytics as a Senior Analyst (Telecom). Neil also had an opportunity to work with Philips Electronics in multiple roles. He is also an IEEE Certified Wireless Professional with a Master of Science (Telecommunications & Business) from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
