Rethinking the Apple Ecosystem
Periodically we take a step back from looking at specific Apple products and services to look more comprehensively at all products and services - the much-vaunted ecosystem.
Like many brands and manufacturers, Apple wants to sell more than one product to each customer. They seek to sell multiple items and services to get more revenue and loyalty from their customer base.
The Apple device story started with Mac computers. Apple Stores came on the scene to move Windows/Intel computer customers to the MacOS platform. That effort was something of a success. The 2007 launch of the iPhone - and the possibility of developing multi-device customers - was the beginning of the true ecosystem. iPads came on the scene a few years later. For this analysis, we look at ownership of these devices among US Apple customers who bought one or more of those products in the quarterly survey period.
iPhone remains the most dominant product, with 94% of recent Apple customers owning one (Chart 1). iPads are next, with 78% owning one. Mac computers have much smaller penetration, at 36% of recent customers.