The number of smartphone users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 17.4 million users (+5.61 percent). After the fifteenth consecutive increasing year, the smartphone user base is estimated to reach 327.54 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of smartphone users of was continuously increasing over the past years.Smartphone users here are limited to internet users of any age using a smartphone. The shown figures have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of smartphone users in countries like Mexico and Canada.

The statistic shows the share of the population in the United States that uses a smartphone in the United States from 2018 to 2025. In 2025, 87.08 percent of the population in the United States is forecast to use a smartphone.

Smartphone user penetration - additional information
A smartphone can be defined as a mobile device that uses an identifiable operating system and has a more advanced technological capability than a basic mobile phone. The number of U.S mobile users who have a smartphone is set to more than triple between 2011 and 2017 to almost 80 percent of all mobile users. This means that the number of overall smartphone users is forecast to top 200 million by 2017.

The smartphone penetration rate of mobile users is similarly high in the United Kingdom, with over 80 percent expected to own a smart device by 2017. However the smartphone market is set to grow at a slower rate in China with just under half of mobile users forecast to own a smartphone in 2017. The percentage is even lower in India where 32 percent of mobile phone users are predicted to use a smartphone by 2017.

Android phones and iPhones remain the most popular choice for smartphones with the two respective Operating Systems holding of 90 percent of the market sales in the U.S. in 2013. This trend looks set to continue with two new competing smartphones on the market, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (Android) and the iPhone 6 (iOS), both unveiled in 2014.

This statistic shows the number of smartphone users in the U.S. from 2009 to 2040. For 2022, the number of smartphone users in the United States is estimated to reach 307 million.

Smartphone users - additional information

Advances in telecommunication technology have been significant in recent years. These advances have led to a level of connectivity never seen before. The number of smartphone users in the US has risen steadily over the last several years and forecasts estimate that smartphone penetration in North America will also continue to rise steadily into the future. The United States is one of the leading countries in the world with respect to adoption of smartphone technology.

In America the most popular smartphone brands are Samsung and Apple, while the most popular smartphone operating systems / platforms with respect to market share are none other than Google Android and Apple’s own operating system, iOS. Other operating systems, such as Symbian, Blackberry OS, Bada and Windows have struggled to maintain a foothold in the market as iOS and Android clearly dominate the field.

The first official smartphones came onto the market in the early 1990s. Initially a smartphone was classified by its ability to offer features like e-mail capability, internet access, QUERTY keyboards, personal digital assistant functions and perhaps a built-in camera. As of today, smartphones have progressed even more and we typically classify smartphones as having a high definition touchscreen, various apps, navigation tools and high-speed internet on the go. More recently sales of smartphones have even exceeded that of traditional feature phones as smartphone usage has continued to rise.

This statistic shows the smartphone penetration as share of the population in the United States from 2010 to 2021. In 2018, 69.6 percent of the U.S. population used a smartphone.

Smartphone penetration in the U.S. - additional information
Almost two-thirds of Americans are predicted to own a smartphone by 2017, more than a threefold increase since 2010. A smartphone is a mobile phone that uses an identifiable open Operating System (OS) and has more advanced computing capability and connectivity than a basic phone. The OS is supported by third party applications (commonly known as apps) written by the developer community.

The operating system must be able to support a multitasking environment and user interface that can handle multiple applications at the same time. Two of the most popular operating systems on the market are made by Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) who had a combined stake of over 90 percent of the smartphone market share worldwide at the end of 2016.

The popularity of the smartphone has risen immensely since Apple introduced its first iPhone in 2007, with 43.5 percent of all Americans forecast to own an iPhone by 2016. The first iPhone was notably different from other smartphones at the time because it used a large touchscreen for direct finger input, rather than the need for a stylus, keypad, or keyboard.

The first smartphone to use the Android OS was the HTC Dream released in 2008. Although numbers of people using this OS were low at first, it has since grown to be the most used operating system, with an estimated 107.7 million Americans projected to own an Android phone by 2016.

The percentage of U.S. adults who own a smartphone has more than doubled since 2011. Only ** percent of all U.S. adults owned a smartphone in 2011, compared to ** percent of adults who owned a smartphone, as of May 2023. The share of U.S. adults owning a smartphone increased by ** percentage points the highlighted period.  Higher smartphone usage with males and higher-income groups     As smartphone penetration overall has increased over time in the United States, this trend can be observed in the split by gender as well. The penetration rate is not equally high though for both male and female users, as the usage amongst males is around five percent higher than amongst females in the United States. The smartphone penetration rate in the United States correlates appears closely related to with household income in the United States. In households with an annual income of more than ** thousand U.S. dollars the smartphone penetration rate is ** percent or higher, while on the other hand smartphone ownership in households with an annual income below this threshold is below ** percent. Apple leader in U.S. smartphone market     Apple is the leading vendor in the United States smartphone market with almost ** percent of U.S. mobile phone subscribers using an Apple device. Although Apple is the leading vendor in the United States, the Apple iOS operating system has a lower market share than its main competitor Google Android. As the Android operating system is used by the vast majority of smartphone vendors other than Apple, it combines the share of popular brands such as Samsung, LG, and Lenovo/Motorola.

The forecast released in January 2022 anticipated a 1.7 billion U.S. dollar increase in the sales value of smartphones sold in the United States, for a total of 74.7 billion U.S. dollars in sales.

Apple and Samsung lead U.S. smartphone market    

Apple and Samsung are the leading smartphone vendors in the United States with a combined sales market share of close to 70 percent. Both companies have witnessed increasing market shares in recent years, although Samsung’s market share decreased in 2019. Together, the leading smartphone brands are used by around 75 percent of smartphone users in the United States.

Higher smartphone usage in urban areas and high-income groups    

Smartphone penetration in the United States varies according to location. Compared to rural areas, smartphone usage in urban and suburban areas is higher by over ten percent (195003). Smartphone penetration also correlates with income as higher income groups have larger smartphone penetration rates . Overall, the trend over the past years seems to be that the growth in penetration is somewhat the same over the different groups but that the adoption level of smartphones was initially higher with urban groups and higher income groups when smartphones first hit the market. This could be as a result of the high initial price of smartphones- only people with higher incomes could afford them, and the higher demand for network coverage in urban areas due to there being more smartphone users.

The smartphone ownership in the United States is highest in urban areas, where 89 percent of adults own a smartphone. In Rural areas the ownership rate is lower with 80 percent.

The global smartphone penetration in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 20.3 percentage points. After the fifteenth consecutive increasing year, the penetration is estimated to reach 74.98 percent and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the smartphone penetration of was continuously increasing over the past years.The penetration rate refers to the share of the total population.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the smartphone penetration in countries like North America and the Americas.

This statistic shows the smartphone penetration rate in the United States by age group in 2018. In 2018, **** percent of people aged 18 to 24 years old in the United States used a smartphone.

Smartphone ownership in the United States is most common in the younger age groups. 97 percent of adults aged 18 to 49 own a smartphone, while the penetration rate of smartphones amongst adults 65 years and older is only 76 percent.

The global smartphone penetration rate was estimated at ** percent in 2024, up from 2023. This is based on an estimated *** billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide and a global population of around *** billion. Regional differences in smartphone penetration Throughout the world, the smartphone penetration rate in the general population varies greatly. For example, in North America and Europe, the smartphone adoption rate stands at roughly ** and ** percent, respectively. Whereas in Sub-Saharan Africa, the same rate only stands at ** percent as of late 2023, showing a roughly ** percent difference in adoption rates between the highest and lowest ranked regions. Global smartphone shipments The number of global smartphone shipments saw a drop in recent years. However, the number of shipments is expected to recover to previous levels in the upcoming years. Most recently, Samsung and Apple have been leading the share of smartphone shipments worldwide, with other competitors such as Xiaomi and Oppo are catching up. Most of the top contributors to the smartphone market are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, which is also the region is the one with the most smartphone sales to end users as a whole.

In 2023, Millennials recorded the highest smartphone penetration rate in the United States, over ** percent. Gen X and Gen Z ranked second and third, with a penetration rate of almost ** percent and roughly ** percent, respectively.

According to a survey conducted in 2024 in the United States, ** respondents aged 55 and above owned an Android smartphone, e.g. Samsung and Google phones. By contrast, ** percent of respondents between 18 and 34 years old owned an iPhone.

The number of smartphone users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total **** million users (+**** percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the smartphone user base is estimated to reach ****** million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of smartphone users of was continuously increasing over the past years.Smartphone users here are limited to internet users of any age using a smartphone. The shown figures have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

In 2022, smartphone vendors sold around 1.39 billion smartphones were sold worldwide, with this number forecast to drop to 1.34 billion in 2023.

Smartphone penetration rate still on the rise

Less than half of the world’s total population owned a smart device in 2016, but the smartphone penetration rate has continued climbing, reaching 78.05 percent in 2020. By 2025, it is forecast that almost 87 percent of all mobile users in the United States will own a smartphone, an increase from the 27 percent of mobile users in 2010.

Smartphone end user sales

In the United States alone, sales of smartphones were projected to be worth around 73 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, an increase from 18 billion dollars in 2010. Global sales of smartphones are expected to increase from 2020 to 2021 in every major region, as the market starts to recover from the initial impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This statistic illustrates the percentage of U.S. adults owned a smartphone from 2011 to 2021, by household income. In 2021, the survey found that ** percent of people with a household income of ****** US dollars or more owned a smartphone.

How many smartphone mobile network subscriptions are active worldwide? The number of smartphone mobile network subscriptions worldwide reached almost seven billion in 2023, and is forecast to exceed 7.7 billion by 2028. China, India, and the United States are the countries with the highest number of smartphone mobile network subscriptions. Smartphone unit sales levelling off The smartphone market still has high growth potential, with the smartphone penetration rate remaining lower than 70 percent in many highly populated markets, in particular China and India. Global smartphone revenue reached 481 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, but was expected to have fallen to 463 billion in 2022. Despite stagnating sales, the increasing average selling price of smartphones is expected to support the market over the coming years. Leading smartphone vendors The leading smartphone vendors today are Samsung and Apple. These technology companies account for about half of all smartphone shipments worldwide.

According to a 2024 Statista survey, ** percent of female respondents between 16 and 64 years in the United States owned a smartphone. Among the country's male population, ** percent had such devices. Accordingly, the total ownership of smartphones in the country was ** percent as of the measured period.

The statistic shows the smartphone penetration in the United States from 2015 to 2018, by age. In 2018, the overall smartphone penetration stood at 85 percent, those in the 18-24 age group showed the greatest proportion of smartphone ownership, with 94 percent saying they had a smartphone.

The population share with mobile internet access in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** percentage points. After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the mobile internet penetration is estimated to reach ***** percent and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the population share with mobile internet access of was continuously increasing over the past years.The penetration rate refers to the share of the total population having access to the internet via a mobile broadband connection. The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).