Apple has “over one and a half billion paid subscriptions, which grew double digits during the quarter”, chief financial officer Kevan Parekh said on its 2 November earnings call [23:40], against an installed base of “over two and a half billion active devices” [23:20]. On those floors that is 0.6 paid subscriptions per active device, by our arithmetic. On the floors MacRumors reported from Apple’s January 2025 call, it was 0.43.
In the same remarks Parekh named two newer services levers: “iCloud Plus plans that now include Apple TV and Apple Arcade in more than 100 countries and regions”, and ads in Apple Maps, “now live in the US and Canada” [23:49]. It was John Ternus’s first earnings call as Apple chief executive.
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The key insight:Apple cited over 1.5 billion paid subscriptions and over 2.5 billion active devices on its 2 November call, 0.6 subscriptions per device on those floors by our arithmetic, against 0.43 on the floors MacRumors reported from its January 2025 call.
Parekh said both “transacting and paid accounts” reached new all-time highs in the September quarter [23:32]. He described the Maps ads as a way for local businesses “to reach customers while respecting our users’ privacy” [23:49]. He gave no revenue figure for Maps ads, for the iCloud+ bundles or for the subscriptions.
In the question-and-answer session Ternus added that the App Store “saw a record number of nearly a billion average weekly visitors” in the quarter [34:34], and that the number of users “paying for at least one service” reached an all-time high [34:40]. He also said Apple had recently launched Apple Pay in India [34:45].
Paid subscriptions and active devices as Apple’s executives cited them on earnings calls, as floors (‘over’, ‘more than’). January 2025 figures are from MacRumors’ summary of that call; October 2025 to November 2026 from Six Colors’ transcripts and Apple’s 2 November replay. Hollow markers: no count given on that call. The 0.43 and 0.60 ratios are our arithmetic on the floors.
Subscriptions Against Devices, Call by Call
Apple’s executives cite these counts on calls, as floors (‘over’, ‘more than’). By our search of Six Colors’ transcripts of the five calls from October 2025 to November 2026, a paid-subscription count was given on two calls and an active-device count on four.
In January 2025, MacRumors reported, Apple had “over 2.35 billion active devices worldwide” and “more than a billion subscriptions across its services”. On the October 2025 call Tim Cook said the installed base “has reached another all-time high” without a number. In January 2026 he cited “more than 2.5 billion active devices”, and Parekh cited “double-digit growth on paid subscribers” without a count.
In April 2026 Parekh cited “over 2.5 billion active devices” again. In July Parekh said Apple had “now surpassed” 1.5 billion paid subscriptions (Six Colors’ text prints a dollar sign before the figure). On 2 November both floors were unchanged: over 1.5 billion and over 2.5 billion.
Between the January 2025 and November 2026 calls, the subscription floor rose 50 per cent, from 1 billion to 1.5 billion, while the device floor rose 6.4 per cent, from 2.35 billion to 2.5 billion, by our arithmetic. Because every figure is a floor, the true ratios may differ from the 0.43 and 0.6 those floors give.
Maps Ads: From Plan to Live
On the April call, Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng asked about Apple’s ad strategy, “given the plans to also introduce ads to maps this summer”. Parekh replied that “this summer, as you said, in the U.S. and Canada, Apple Maps will feature ads during key search and discovery moments, creating a new way for local businesses to reach customers and explore new places”. He also said Apple had “recently did introduce additional ads across the App Store search results”.
On 2 November Parekh said the Maps ads are “now live in the US and Canada”. Apple did not say when they launched, how many businesses buy them, or what they earn. Its earnings releases do not break services revenue into advertising and other lines.
The Bundle Lever
The iCloud+ change folds Apple’s video and games subscriptions into its storage plans. Ben Reitzes of Melius Research asked “whether AI could help you launch new services we haven’t thought of yet” [41:18]. Parekh pointed to the installed base and the App Store’s weekly visitors, then said: “The example was the expansion of iCloud plans to include Apple TV and Arcade, obviously reaching a lot of new potential subscribers. AppleCare One Family is another example of that”, according to the Six Colors transcript.
He did not say whether bundled Apple TV and Arcade access counts as one subscription or several in the 1.5 billion, or how the bundles are priced in each market. Separately, Apple says paid expanded access to Siri AI will come through iCloud+, which we covered in our Siri AI piece.
What Was Asked, and What Was Answered
Question (Morgan Stanley analyst Woodring, [32:13]): as search and regulation change, “are there new services that we should be looking towards that you believe can become a more sizable offset to maybe take some pressure off these historically important revenue streams?”
Answer (Parekh, then Ternus, [32:38]–[34:59]): Parekh said foreign exchange had been “a significant headwind of about four percentage points”, that App Store performance was similar to the prior year, that mobile gaming headwinds would continue, and that Apple operates under a US court ruling on link-out transactions. Ternus cited the installed base, the weekly App Store visitors, paying users, Apple Pay in India, and added: “we think intelligence is going to be another opportunity as well”.
As we read the exchange, neither executive named a new service as the offset Woodring asked about, or put a size on one; readers can compare the question and the answer above. Reitzes’s question on whether services growth could accelerate past the 8 to 9 per cent guide also drew no long-term figure.
As we read the series, the subscription floor has moved more than the device floor: up 50 per cent against 6.4 per cent between the January 2025 and November 2026 calls, by our arithmetic, though floors can understate both.
As we read the call, both levers Parekh named sell more to devices already in use: ads in Apple Maps sell local businesses access to Maps users, and the iCloud+ bundles add Apple TV and Apple Arcade to existing storage plans.
Kevan Parekh, CFO, Apple, Q4 FY2026 earnings call
“We also have over one and a half billion paid subscriptions, which grew double digits during the quarter”
Three Implications
FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES Parekh said ads in Apple Maps are now live in the US and Canada, describing them as a new way to reach customers; Apple gave no price or reach figure.
FOR APPLE TV AND APPLE ARCADE Parekh said iCloud Plus plans now include Apple TV and Apple Arcade in more than 100 countries and regions, which he said reaches a lot of new potential subscribers.
FOR READERS OF THE SERVICES LINE Apple gave counts only as floors and no revenue for subscriptions, Maps ads or bundles, so the 0.6 per device is our arithmetic on floors, not a disclosed ratio.
The framework puts it this way: “In the embedding era, value comes from what the software connects to.”
As we read it, Maps ads and the iCloud+ bundles are new paid connections on software already running on Apple’s more than 2.5 billion active devices. The framework was published in December 2025 and does not discuss Apple’s call.
Apple gave no revenue for Maps ads, the iCloud+ bundles, AppleCare One or subscriptions, and no exact subscription or device totals, only floors. On the call it did not define a paid subscription, say whether third-party App Store subscriptions are counted, or say how bundles are counted. The January 2025 figures are from MacRumors’ summary of that call, not a transcript. The 0.6 and 0.43 ratios and the growth rates of the floors are our arithmetic.
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Apple said on 2 November that it has over 1.5 billion paid subscriptions and over 2.5 billion active devices, 0.6 subscriptions per device on those floors by our arithmetic, against 0.43 on the January 2025 floors. The levers it named were iCloud+ plans bundling Apple TV and Apple Arcade in more than 100 countries and regions, and ads in Apple Maps, now live in the US and Canada.
A note on sourcing. Quotes from the 2 November call are from our machine transcript of Apple’s webcast audio, checked against Six Colors’ transcript; timestamps are from the start of Apple’s replay. Earlier calls are quoted from Six Colors’ transcripts, and January 2025 figures from MacRumors’ summary. Apple gives these counts as floors; every ratio and growth rate of a floor is our arithmetic. We did not contact Apple.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
