There has been a great deal of consternation over the rumored four-figure price of the iPhone 8 in recent weeks and months, but will a price bump actually affect the sales of Apple’s next flagship phone? A new survey suggests that it won’t, as iPhone owners are more loyal to the brand than any other group, which means that a majority of them plan to buy a new iPhone regardless of the price.
On Thursday, 9to5Mac shared the results of a survey from advertising agency Fluent in which 2,000 US consumers were polled. The survey shows that 79% of iPhone owners intend to buy another iPhone to replace their current phone, as opposed to 63% of Samsung phone owners and just 31% for a typical Android brand. Additionally, only 5% of the iPhone owners were planning to buy a Samsung.
But the most pressing question here is whether or not those loyal iPhone buyers will pay up to $1,000 (or possibly more) for the iPhone 8. While a recent analyst note from Barclays predicted that 1/5th of iPhone owners will be unwilling to pay four figures for the iPhone 8, Fluent’s survey indicates that the estimation from Barclays is way off base.
Fluent’s survey shows that 40% of iPhone owners are planning to shell out for the iPhone 8. Two-thirds of the respondents agree that $1,000 is too expensive, but 70% said they wouldn’t even consider moving to another brand. Needless to say, if they want a new smartphone and aren’t willing to give Samsung, LG or HTC a try, they’re going to be stuck paying for an iPhone.
Furthermore, as 9to5Mac points out (and as our team discussed in Slack this morning), very few people are actually going to pay $1,000 (or $999 or $1,100 or whatever the iPhone 8 ends up costing) up front anyway. A vast majority of consumers will buy their phones with a carrier and pay for a financing plan, spreading out the cost of the phone over a year or two.
