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Just how popular is Apple's smartphone in Australia?
With the highly anticipated release of the iPhone 8 fast approaching, we decided to delve into the number of iPhones bought per year in Australia, along with the amount of money we're spending on these devices. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't publish its sales figures, but fear not, for we've calculated a conservative estimate using readily available data on smartphone penetration rates and Apple's iPhone market share.
How much are we spending?
We've crunched the numbers to reveal that iPhone sales are only getting more popular as time goes on. In fact, our estimation revealed that over $12.89 billion has been spent on iPhones in Australia since 2012.
The iPhone's market share...
Interestingly, despite sales sitting at their strongest level, Apple's market share has lost steam when compared to other smartphone providers.
How many are we purchasing?
Our calculations reveal that iPhone sales have been relatively consistent since 2014, hitting their peak in 2016. Over 11.7 million units have been sold since 2012.
iPhone statistics: 2012 – 2016
| Year | Average AU iPhone market share (%) | AU smartphone penetration (%) | Estimate of iPhones purchased | Estimate of amount spent on iPhones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 30.63% | 43.70% | 1,744,386 | $1,568,203,381 |
| 2013 | 31.42% | 53.20% | 2,099,305 | $1,933,460,158 |
| 2014 | 33.93% | 61.20% | 2,506,413 | $2,661,810,320 |
| 2015 | 37.84% | 63.52% | 2,638,329 | $3,501,062,277 |
| 2016 | 37.57% | 66.06% | 2,732,594 | $3,229,926,421 |
Source: finder.com.au, Trading Economics/Australian Bureau of Statistics, Kantar, Statista
Release dates and prices
See the release details of each handset, from the iPhone 4s onwards.
| Model | AU release date | 16GB | 32GB | 64GB | 128GB | 256GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 4s | 14/10/11 | $799 | $899 | $999 | – | – |
| iPhone 5 | 21/09/12 | $799 | $899 | $999 | – | – |
| iPhone 5c | 20/09/13 | $739 | $869 | – | – | – |
| iPhone 5s | 20/09/13 | $869 | $999 | $1129 | – | – |
| iPhone 6 | 19/09/14 | $869 | – | $999 | $1129 | – |
| iPhone 6 Plus | 19/09/14 | $999 | – | $1129 | $1249 | – |
| iPhone 6s | 25/09/15 | $1079 | – | $1299 | $1379 | – |
| iPhone 6s Plus | 25/09/15 | $1299 | – | $1379 | $1529 | – |
| iPhone SE | 31/03/16 | $679 | n/a | $829 | n/a | – |
| iPhone 7 | 16/09/16 | – | $1079 | – | $1229 | $1379 |
| iPhone 7 Plus | 16/09/16 | – | $1269 | – | $1419 | $1569 |
Source: iPhone 4s | iPhone 5 | iPhone 5c | iPhone 5s | iPhone 6 | iPhone 6 Plus | iPhone 6s | iPhone 6s Plus | iPhon e SE | iPhone 7 | iPhone 7 Plus, *n/a = this data is unavailable, – = this specific model was not made
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 AU smartphone penetration (from Statista) with that year’s AU population, as reported by Trading Economics/Australian Bureau of Statistics, and subtracting from this the product of the smartphone penetration and the AU 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 US Gallup poll.
- Responders had the option to select: a) when a new model is released, usually about every year, b) as soon as your cellphone provider allows it, usually every two years, c) only when it stops working or becomes totally obsolete.
- For option c), we approximated the average time for an iPhone to stop working as 3 years, as although iPhones can last longer, human error often causes them to break long before they die of natural causes.
- The percentage of people who responded a certain way was multiplied by one divided by the number of years (e.g. 51% of respondents selected 2 years = 0.51 x 1/2).
- This was completed for all three responses, and all were added together to determine the average number of years iPhone users take to upgrade.
- The number of new iPhone users was then divided by the average number of years iPhone users take to upgrade gives the number of iPhone users upgrading in a single year.
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