The number of iPhones in the UK is forecast to rise by 195 per cent from 2.17m at the end of 2009 to 6.4m by the end of this year, according to the latest data from mobileSQUARED. The total number of iPhones in the market will top 9.4 million by the end of 2015, constituting 11 per cent of the UK handset market.

Data from the mobileSQUARED Knowledge Centre shows that the iPhone accounted for 2.7 per cent of total active mobile devices in the UK at the end of 2009, and will rise to 7.9 per cent by the end of this year, and hit the 10 per cent mark around the end of 2012.

“The iPhone is still providing a lot of excitement for UK consumers, to the extent that one mobile device in every 10 used in the UK will be an iPhone at the end of 2012,” says mobileSQUARED chief markets analyst, Gavin Patterson. “However, this year is definitely something of a spike in UK sales for the iPhone, and growth will fall away moving forward as more Android devices and other smartphones enter the market.” 

Patterson says that O2 is still driving iPhone sales, despite losing its exclusivity period for selling the device in November last year. O2 started selling the iPhone in November 2007 and had racked up about 190,000 sales by the end of 2007. It took a total of 16 months to pass 1m units sold (26 February, 2009), and less than 12 months to announce the second million (4 February, 2010).

“Last week ( 30 July), the company announced it had passed the 3m milestone – an average run-rate of 166,667 iPhone sales per month over the past six months – and it is well on course to top the 4m mark by the end of the year,” says Patterson.

Orange started selling the iPhone in November 2009 and announced 250,000 pre-registrations for the handset and 30,000 sales on its first day. Tesco, the UK retail giant (and MVNO jointly owned with O2) started selling the iPhone in the run-up to Christmas, while Vodafone began selling the device in January this year and announced 50,000 sales on its first day and 100,000 sales in the first week.

However, iPhone sales for both Vodafone and Orange are forecast to slow after the initial demand is satisfied, with average run rates of around 90,000 devices each per month.