The number of iPhone s in the UK is forecast to rise 195% from 2.17 million at the end of 2009 to 6.4 million by the end of this year, according to the latest data announced by mobileSQUARED. The total number of iPhone s in the market will top 9.4 million by the end of 2015 constituting 11% of the total devices used in the UK.

Data extracted from the mobileSQUARED Knowldege Centre shows that the iPhone comprised 2.7% of total active mobile devices in the UK at the end of 2009, and will rise to 7.9% by the end of this year, and hit the 10% 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 ten used in the UK will be an iPhone at the end of 2012," said Gavin Patterson, chief markets analyst at mobileSQUARED. "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," he said.

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 end-07. It took a total of 16 months to pass 1 million units sold (February 26, 2009), and less than 12 months to announce the second million (February 4, 2010).

"Last week ( July 30), the company announced it had passed the 3 million milestone - an average run-rate of 166,667 iPhone sales per month over the past 6 months - and it is well on course to top the 4 million mark by the end of the year," said Patterson.

Orange started selling the iPhone in November 2009 and announced 250,000 pre-registrations for the iPhone 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 started 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.