Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) posted quarterly numbers that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) numbers where a disappointment. The changing of the guard at the top of the tech world is not in its middle stages. It already has happened.

Facebook’s monthly active users have hit 1.65 billion. That is 23% of the world’s population. And the growth of that number has slowed, but not enough to keep it from reaching 2 billion within three or four years.

Facebook’s revenue rose 53% in the past quarter to $5.2 billion, a fraction of Apple’s. However, Apple is shrinking, and Facebook is not the only huge global social medium. Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) has 310 million active monthly users. LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD) and Pinterest have counts over 100 million.

No question that smartphones have become the dominant consumer electronics device, but what do people use those devices for? Aside from Google search and games, Facebook and other social networks dominate smartphone use. Smartphones have become platforms. Use of social networks and search are at the heart of smartphone demand, even when based on popular downloads at the iTunes store.

Smartphone sales have slowed worldwide. But sales will be in the hundreds of millions each year. Each one sold is another chance for Facebook to get a new member, or to move one from personal computers to portable devices.

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