> There are more than 1.46 billion active iPhone users worldwide as of 2023. [1]
Given that some people have more than one subscription (e.g. iCloud + Apple TV+), it actually doesn't seem that crazy. Especially when the cheapest subscription is only $0.99/mo for 50 GB of storage, which a ton of people probably have since it's incredibly easy to blow past the free 5 GB tier for your iPhone backup.
Some of Apple’s “side businesses” like AirPods or the AppleTV only seem small in comparison. For any normal company they would be success beyond their wildest dreams.
The iPhone 13 mini has been called disappointing or a failure with analysis saying it only made up 3% of new iPhone sales during one quarter.
Apple planned to sell 300m phones last year.
I’d love to own a company selling 9 million copies a year of a $600 device. That’s $5.4 billion in gross revenue alone.
It's backing up the stuff on your phone. Like you'd expect a backup system to do. You also aren't forced to pay. I just turned off backups and instead use Google drive/photos.
My issue was that I want it to backup settings and contacts but not photos, it would then backup photos, using all the space and then I'd need to pay, it was difficult to undo that.
>> There are more than 1.46 billion active iPhone users worldwide as of 2023. [1]
That number is wrong.
The most recent reported Active iPhone user was from 2021 at 1B pass mark. And it took Apple more than 2 years to gain from 900M to 1B. I would not be surprised if Apple now has 1.1B Active iPhone user, but an extra 460M unit would be equal if not more than the total unit shipped since the announcement of 1B active user.
Apple also has over 2B Active Devices Number which include everything from iPhone, iPad to Apple TV.
Willing to bet a subscription is a service/person pair, not a person. E.g., a person with iCloud and Apple TV+ is 2 subscriptions, and wouldn't be surprised if the Apple One (or whatever the bulk-subscribe thing is called) counts for all the individual services even if you only use say 3 of the 5 (or whatever the right counts are).
Or multiple people have more than one. Think news and fitness+, or iCloud and Apple TV. If you don’t use more than 3 of their services subscribing to the bundle doesn’t make much sense
Haven’t read the release, but I imagine they’re referring to each component (i.e. iCloud, Music) as a separate subscription even if subbed to by the same user bundles notwithstanding.
What counts as a subscription? Because 1 billion feels incredibly high to me, like 1 out of 8 human beings has a paid Apple subscription?