For every active Apple device, there’s more or less two Android devices regularly used by people all around the world. Both brands have grown in popularity over the years, and according to the latest data, these two are showing no signs of slowing down.
During the Google I/O 2021 developer conference, Google was more than happy to report that more than three billion devices are now powered by Android. As to how many of these devices are smartphones, tablets, or smartwatches, Google did not provide a breakdown.
The rise in Android devices is no doubt incredible. It was only in 2019 that Google proclaimed it reached 2.5 billion active Android devices. Two years prior, it was two billion. At such rate, the company may be celebrating 3 billion active devices by 2023.

Apple, for its part, is no slouch either. The company announced in January this year that it reached 1.65 billion active devices. A billion of those are iPhones. Thanks to Apple’s long-term support for its devices, about 80% of these devices are running iOS 13.
In January 2019, Apple disclosed it reached 1.4 billion active devices. In other words, Apple saw a 17% growth in active devices over the course of two years. In February 2018, it was 1.3 billion. Apple reached the 1-billion milestone in January 2016.

In terms of market share of active devices alone, Google’s Android platform naturally wins. Its open nature makes it easy to attract partner manufacturers and create a vast ecosystem, with a multitude of devices from different brands released every year.
But Apple having reached its own numbers all by itself is just as impressive. Apple’s brand awareness beats most if not all other tech companies in the world, and that’s one reason why people keep buying Apple products.