iPhone sales in the UK: 2024 statistics

How has iPhone popularity changed in the UK?

We’ve looked into Apple’s most valuable product, the iPhone, to see how much the latest models cost and how many people in the UK own one of these smartphones. Since Apple does not publish its sales figures for the UK, we’ve looked into the price of each iPhone sold each year in the UK using readily available data on smartphone penetration rates. This type of insight is useful for those considering buying shares in Apple.

iPhone sales statistics UK: Highlights

  • An estimated 8.4 million iPhones were sold in the UK in 2023, around 23,000 a day.
  • In 2023, iOS holds around 37% of the total UK mobile market share.
  • 232 million iPhones were sold worldwide in 2022.
  • To purchase an iPhone 15 (£799), the average Brit needs to work for 46 hours.
  • A typical Brit needs to spend 3% of their average yearly income after tax to buy an iPhone 15.
  • There were more than 1.3 billion active iPhones worldwide in 2022.
  • The iPhone 12 was the most popular iPhone in the UK in Q3 2023, with a 46% approval rate.
  • Apple generated over $200 billion (£150 billion) in revenue from iPhone sales in 2023.
  • There were more than 2 billion active Apple devices worldwide in 2023.

How many iPhones are sold in the UK each year?

An estimated 8.4 million iPhones were sold in the UK in 2023, which is around 23,000 sold every day. There were around 8.6 million iPhones sold in 2022 and a whopping 8.8 million iPhones sold in 2021.

Year Estimated iPhones bought in the UK
2023 8,398,541
2022 8,628,681
2021 8,768,117
2020 8,423,357

How many iPhones are sold globally each year?

It is estimated that 232 million iPhones were sold worldwide in 2022. This is down slightly from the estimated 242 million sold in 2021 but up from the 196.9 million sold in 2020.

How much is spent on iPhones each year?

Apple generated just over $200 billion (over £150 billion) in revenue from iPhone sales in 2023. This is down slightly from 2022, when Apple generated $205 billion (£160 billion) in revenue from iPhone sales, but up from 2021, when iPhone revenue was approximately $192 billion (£150 billion).

Year Revenue from iPhone (millions)
2013 $91,279
2014 $101,991
2015 $155,041
2016 $136,700
2017 $141,319
2018 $166,269
2019 $142,381
2020 $137,781
2021 $191,973
2022 $205,489
2023 $200,583

iPhone price history in the UK: How long would it take to afford one?

To earn the money to purchase an iPhone 15 (£799), the average Brit needs to work for 46 hours. The cost of the basic model is almost 3% of the average yearly income after tax.

Below, you can explore the price history of different iPhones in the UK at release and how long it would have taken to afford it with the average hourly pay that year.

Model Release date UK price at release (GBP) US price at release (USD) Affordability of iPhone (hours needed to work on median UK hourly rate at launch to afford iPhone) Average hourly pay in UK of release year
iPhone 15 Pro Max 22/09/2023 £1,199.00 $1,199 68.6 £17.48
iPhone 15 Pro 22/09/2023 £999.00 $999 57.2 £17.48
iPhone 15 Plus 22/09/2023 £899.00 $899 51.4 £17.48
iPhone 15 22/09/2023 £799.00 $799 45.7 £17.48
iPhone 14 Pro Max 16/09/2022 £1,199.00 $1,099 73.2 £16.37
iPhone 14 Pro 16/09/2022 £1,099.00 $999 67.1 £16.37
iPhone 14 Plus 07/10/2022 £949.00 $899 58.0 £16.37
iPhone 14 16/09/2022 £849.00 $799 51.9 £16.37
iPhone SE (3rd Gen) 18/03/2022 £419.00 $429 25.6 £16.37
iPhone 13 Pro Max 24/09/2021 £1,149.00 $1,199 73.4 £15.65
iPhone 13 pro 24/09/2021 £949.00 $999 60.6 £15.65
iPhone 13 mini 24/09/2021 £679.00 $699 43.4 £15.65
iPhone 13 24/09/2021 £749.00 $799 47.9 £15.65
iPhone 12 Pro Max 23/10/2020 £1,099.00 $1,099 72.5 £15.15
iPhone 12 Pro 23/10/2020 £999.00 $999 65.9 £15.15
iPhone 12 23/10/2020 £799.00 $799 52.7 £15.15
iPhone 12 Mini 23/10/2020 £699.00 $699 46.1 £15.15
iPhone 11 Pro Max 20/09/2019 £1,149.00 $1,099 77.1 £14.90
iPhone 11 Pro 20/09/2019 £1,049.00 $999 70.4 £14.90
iPhone 11 20/09/2019 £729.00 $699 48.9 £14.90
iPhone XR 26/10/2018 £749.00 $749 52.1 £14.37
iPhone XS Max 21/09/2018 £1,099.00 $1,099 76.5 £14.37
iPhone XS 21/09/2018 £999.00 $999 69.5 £14.37
iPhone X 03/11/2017 £999.00 $999 71.4 £14.00
iPhone 8 Plus 22/09/2017 £799.00 $799 57.1 £14.00
iPhone 8 22/09/2017 £699.00 $699 49.9 £14.00
iPhone SE 31/03/2016 £359.00 $399 26.3 £13.66
iPhone 7 Plus 16/09/2016 £719.00 $769 52.6 £13.66
iPhone 7 16/09/2016 £599.00 $649 43.9 £13.66
iPhone 6s Plus 25/09/2015 £619.00 $749 46.4 £13.35
iPhone 6s 25/09/2015 £539.00 $649 40.4 £13.35
iPhone 6 Plus 19/09/2014 £619.00 $749 47.0 £13.16
iPhone 6 19/09/2014 £539.00 $649 41.0 £13.16
iPhone 5s 20/09/2013 £549.00 $649 41.8 £13.13
iPhone 5c 20/09/2013 £469.00 $549 35.7 £13.13
iPhone 5 21/09/2012 £529.00 $649 41.2 £12.83
iPhone 4s 14/10/2011 £499.00 $649 39.3 £12.71

How many iPhone users are there worldwide?

Research shows that there were more than 1.3 billion active iPhones worldwide in 2022. Overall, it was reported that Apple had more than 2 billion active devices worldwide as of 2023 stats.

The number of iPhone users around the world has increased each year, going from around 10 million in 2008 to 1.3 billion in 2022, an impressive increase of 13240%. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of active iPhone users increased by 8%.

Year Number of active iPhones worldwide
2008 10 million
2009 25 million
2010 60 million
2011 115 million
2012 206 million
2013 329 million
2014 442 million
2015 569
2016 710
2017 814
2018 888
2019 948
2020 1042
2021 1231
2022 1334

What is the iOS market share in the UK?

According to the figures for the first 9 months of 2023, Apple has a 37% iOS market share, with almost all the rest of the market taken by Android. The iOS market share has been close to the 40% mark since 2020, with some monthly fluctuation as it typically increases in the months following a new iPhone release.

Sources

      • YouGov
      • Apple
      • Business of Apps
      • Kantar
      • Statista
      • ONS

Methodology

We estimated the number of iPhones purchased per year by adding the number of new iPhone users to the number of existing iPhone users who would want an upgrade. This was estimated by:

      • Number of new iPhone users:
      • The number of new smartphone users each year was found by multiplying the UK smartphone penetration (from Statista) with that year’s UK population, as reported by the ONS, and subtracting from this the product of the smartphone penetration and the UK population of the previous year.
      • This was then multiplied by the average market share of the iPhone that year, according to Kantar. (n.b. Kantar’s data was updated monthly, which meant that we added each data set together to find this average).

Number of existing iPhone users upgrading that year:

      • The percentage of people upgrading to new iPhones every year was calculated from the results of a Strategy Analysis study.
      • This showed that the average consumer upgraded their smartphone every 33 months.
      • The number of iPhone users in a year, minus the number of new iPhone users, gives the number of pre-existing iPhone users. This was then divided by the average number of years (2.75 years) iPhone users take to upgrade, which gives the number of iPhone users upgrading that year.

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