- 85% of teenagers have iPhones, according to a new survey.
- 88% of teenagers want their next smartphone to be an iPhone.
- Despite some impressive devices from Samsung, the company simply can’t compete with the iPhone when it comes to teenage interest.
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According to a new survey conducted by Piper Sandler Companies, teenagers still prefer Apple’s iPhone over Android devices like Samsung by a wide mile. The data is a bit surprising given that Samsung flagships, in particular, can more or less stand toe-to-toe with the iPhone these days. Still, Apple has long had a brand cache that other companies, no matter how hard they try or how much money they spend, can’t seem to match.
The survey in question fielded responses from 5,200 teens — with an average age of about 16 — across 41 states. When the dust settled, a whopping 85% of respondents indicated that they own an iPhone. That’s an absolutely staggering figure and underscores the strength of Apple’s brand amongst younger generations.
What’s more, the survey found that 88% of respondents indicated that they want an iPhone to be their next smartphone. In other words, Apple’s share of the teen smartphone market, impressively, still has room to grow. It’s also worth noting that the 85% and 88% figures above both represent “new all-time survey highs.”
So what, exactly, is the reason behind the iPhone’s high popularity with teens? It’s hard to pinpoint just one reason, but there might be something to the notion that people in general prefer the blue chat bubbles with two iPhone users as opposed to the green bubbles that arise when an iPhone user chats with an Android user.
It admittedly sounds nuts, but you may recall a story from last year in which an IT manager discovered that the majority of his 500-person team asked for iPhones as opposed to Android devices for this very reason.
On a related note, Apple has long demonstrated a knack for appealing to younger customers, an ability that goes all the way back to the company’s iPod advertising in the early 2000s. Ever since then, whether it’s been deserved or not, Apple has managed to position itself as a company more attuned to teen culture. Whereas Apple comes off as hip and cool, a company like Samsung can sometimes come across as out of touch even though its product line is quite impressive.
It’s also worth noting that Apple has done a great job of introducing wallet-friendly devices into its product line, thus making it more likely for parents to purchase an iPhone for their children. The 2016 release of the iPhone SE, for example, provided next-gen iPhone technology in a compact and rather affordable package. Incidentally, the iPhone SE proved to be far more popular than even Apple anticipated. With that said, an iPhone SE successor — likely to be called the iPhone 9 — will reportedly launch sometime this month.
The rumored device will likely be priced under $400, will include Touch ID and a 4.7-inch LCD display, an A13 processor, and will have storage tiers of 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB.
