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installed base

installed base

2 5.9
The number of a company's products that people use now, like devices or software
  • noun
  • Jargon
translation icon : base instalada
  • Understanding the size of your installed base can help tailor your marketing strategies.
  • installed base of millions
  • a huge installed base

Examples

  • Just a year ago, Symbian was still the biggest OS by installed base, and less than two years ago, Blackberry was bigger than the iPhone by installed base.

    Blog text (19)
  • So 19% of the installed base of handsets globally are smartphones.

    Blog text (28)
  • The features of the installed base may be of interest; this is data that usually is hard to find.

    Blog text (19)
  • The migration is continuing, and the global smartphone installed base will pass the 1 billion level by the second quarter of 2012.

    Blog text (28)
  • A higher installed base of consoles brings with it higher software sales, which can be very profitable.

    Blog text (2)
  • Globally, the installed base is still 81% non-smartphones, what I call 'dumbphones.'

    Blog text (28)
  • Of course, Android has grown from nowhere to having more than half of the total installed base of all smartphones, and right now sells about two-thirds of new smartphones, so that lead only keeps increasing.

    Blog text (19)
  • While everyone obsesses about the iPhone and Android (and Windows, haha), the global installed base of smartphones by operating system is still dominated by Symbian.

    Blog text (28)
  • Financial benchmarks are not disclosed; however, given the company's incredible installed base, we would estimate that the company is valued at about 3x total funding of $45 million or a valuation of $135 million.

    Blog text (6)
  • The company has an installed base of over 50 million users for its software.

Surface Forms

Morphology

install + base

The phrase is partially compositional: 'installed' (already set up) + 'base' (a group/foundation) yields the idea of the set of things that have been installed, so a learner could infer it refers to installed units. However, 'installed base' is a business collocation that specifically denotes the number of customers or units in use, a technical/counting sense that may not be fully predictable to an average B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Installed base comes from a simple image: installed means devices put in place at customers' sites and base means the group or foundation they form. So the phrase refers to the total number of units or customers 'in use' that make the company's 'foundation' for future sales.