We wanted to pull out the whiteboard for a couple of simple indicators, with both Macs and iPhones: what is its market share in each country according to data from StatCounterand what is its GDP per capita (data from Visual Capitalist) to see if a certain correlation occurs. There are many more possible factors, both legislative, in countries that impose high tariffs on this type of product or that force them to be assembled there; and cultural, such as those that have manufacturers born there, in the case of Apple in the United States or Samsung in South Korea, and enjoy a high threshold of sales boosted for that reason. Even so, we go with it as a starting point.
The preponderance of Windows in corporate environments penalizes the market share of macOS, which fails to reach the figures achieved by the iPhone in its most dominated countries. Spain, with almost a 15% market share for macOS, is among the intermediate countries. You can move the cursor or click on each country to see its details, as well as enlarge the map.
The top 10 countries by market share are made up mostly of small nations with solid economies. Of the first seven, only one exceeds 100,000 inhabitants. The Faroe Islands, in fact, do not even appear in the tool used to create this map.
The largest shares of macOS occur in nations with high GDP per capita and very low population
- Faroe Islands: 69.57% (49,000 inhabitants)
- Andorra: 44.3% (77,000 inhabitants)
- Monaco: 38.86% (39,000 inhabitants)
- Greenland: 34.34% (56,000 inhabitants)
- Belize: 31.64% (398,000 inhabitants)
- Seychellois: 30.77% (98,000 inhabitants)
- San Marino: 30.19% (34,000 inhabitants)
- Macau: 29.13% (649,000 inhabitants)
- Hong Kong: 28.89% (7,500,000 inhabitants)
- Australia: 27.11% (25,700,000 inhabitants)
Regarding the correlation between GDP per capita and market share, there is a certain correlation if we look at the regression line, somewhat distorted by the three countries with values above 100,000 dollars per year. From 40,000, no country has a market share of less than 10%, which is not too much either, it is simply where a clear threshold can be seen. Here you can also see the information of each point by moving the cursor or clicking on it.
The iPhone: much higher penetration than the Mac, even in highly populated nations
We turn to the iPhone, something not as conditioned as computers for business use, where greater contrasts may be seen. spoilers: so it happens. In Spain, the iOS market share was almost 18% in April 2022, a figure that has been repeating itself, point up point down, for a few quarters.
Again, the countries where the iOS market share is higher are mainly small territories, with populations of a few tens or a few hundred thousand inhabitants. Although in this top 10, unlike that of macOS, the United States and Canada do sneak in to accompany Australia as great nations, with populations of tens or hundreds of millions of inhabitants.
Nda compares to the Faroe Islands: 9 out of 10 smartphones are iPhone
- Faroe Islands: 92.69% (49,000 inhabitants)
- Monaco: 66.69% (39,000 inhabitants)
- Liechtenstein: 63.55% (38,000 inhabitants)
- Macau: 63.13% (649,000 inhabitants)
- Belize: 62.98% (398,000 inhabitants)
- Andorra: 60.79% (77,000 inhabitants)
- Greenland: 59.14% (56,000 inhabitants)
- USA: 57.58% (330,000,000 inhabitants)
- Canada: 57.3% (38,000,000 inhabitants)
- Australia: 56.09% (25,700,000 inhabitants)
The correlation with GDP per capita is much more pronounced: no country with less than $40,000 per year has an iOS share of less than 20%which may not be much either, but it does give way to a graph where this greater correlation can be seen than in the case of macOS.
Spain, unlike in the computer market, has a particularly low penetration of Apple in the mobile market. No country with a higher GDP per capita has a lower share for the iPhone… and many countries with similar or lower GDP per capita do have higher shares of iOS. Quite superior, in many cases.
South America, Africa and some countries in Southeast Asia, on the other hand, are the ones with the lowest market share for iOS, mostly below 10%.
Here is the full table with the countries, their iOS and macOS market shares, and their 2020 GDP per capita so you can explore the data for yourself.