Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple made more money than ever during the holiday season, and its growth during 2021 has helped the company add 150 million more active devices. During an earnings call with investors last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple 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 in January 2020. While Cook didn’t delve deeper into the device details, Apple crossed the 1 billion active iPhones milestone a year ago, after selling its billionth iPhone in 2016 and then hitting 900 million active iPhone users in 2019. Apple counts a device as active as long as it has engaged with an Apple service within the past 90 days, so the 1.8 billion number covers a variety of Apple hardware.
Google revealed last year that there are now over 3 billion active Android devices that have access to the Google Play Store. The true number of Android-based devices, including ones that use alternative stores, is likely much higher than 3 billion. Microsoft revealed earlier this week that there are now 1.4 billion active Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices. Microsoft also counts its Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S as Windows 10 devices.
Apple had a record-breaking quarterly earnings for the company’s fiscal Q1, posting $123.9 billion in revenue and record profits of $34.6 billion. The iPhone had a big quarter thanks to holiday sales, and accounted for a staggering $71.63 billion in revenue alone.