Apple recently released its financial earnings for 2015, and while the company posted a record year, there are some concerns over the slowing of iPhone sales. Apple's sales of iPhones only increased by 0.4% during the first full quarter of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus availability, with the sales from iOS, Apple TV and Mac helping to soften the blow. In fact, the one silver lining the company can take from all this is the fact that they reached the 1 billion connected devices (PDF link) mark.

While some Android users might say that their chosen OS achieved the same feat in 2014 already, Apple's recently claimed milestone is still mightily impressive. Especially as Apple devices in general are quite expensive and cater to luxury/high-end consumers, not to mention that they don't have a number of other OEMs utilising their OS.

The amount of connected devices is totalled from the number of iOS sporting devices (iPhone and iPad), iMac and MacBook, Apple TV and Apple Watch products registering on the company's system as active. It is the last product silo that interests us though, with the highly lauded Apple Watch failing to have the impact that the Cupertino-based manufacturer may have hoped. That said, smartwatches in general, can be seen to have failed in that regard as well. Interestingly though, Apple is yet to release any sales figures for its Watch, which seems odd given the fact that it has done so for its other devices.

Despite increasing its number of active devices, Apple still has some work to do in the iPhone category. As such, the iPhone 7 has its work cut out in convincing consumers to purchase it.