What you should know
- 87% of U.S. teens own an iPhone and 88% said that their next phone will be an iPhone
- iMessage is one of the iPhone features that attracts teens
- Some teens might have had a low-price Android handset for their first phone
- Teens prefer the iPhone due to features, ecosystem, and peer pressure
Full Story
Investment house Piper Sandler conducts a survey every other year to find out what U.S. teens’ interests are in tech, clothing, entertainment, and more. The most recent survey found that 87% of U.S. teens own an iPhone while 88% said that their next phone will be an iPhone. Interestingly, the survey was conducted between September 4th and September 27th. A large majority of the respondents lived in the South, Midwest, and West; significantly less lived in the North. iPhone is exceedingly popular with U.S. teens, despite Android being the most widely used operating system worldwide. iMessage is named as an important factor in the popularity of iPhone among U.S. teens.
iMessage is one key feature that U.S. teens find attractive in an iPhone. The lack of end-to-end encryption, read receipts, typing indicators, high-quality image and video sending, and the ability to send larger messages in group chats, as well as the presence of green text bubbles, when using a non-iOS device are some features iOS users are deprived of. As a result, 87% of U.S. teens own an iPhone rather than an Android device. Despite Android’s dominance worldwide, the iPhone is the go-to device for teens in the U.S., which is revealing in itself.
The Apple ecosystem sets teenagers up to be long-term consumers. AirPods are considered cool and help solidify the iPhone’s dominance among teenagers. 34% of respondents in the Piper survey also owned Apple Watches. What’s fascinating is that most of the teenagers surveyed were not alive when the iPhone was first released. It’s interesting that they choose Apple products despite not having been there to witness their origin. The influence of parents and schoolmates may have a significant impact on teenagers’ preferences when choosing an Apple product.
Every other word out of a kid’s mouth to his parents might be “iPhone” after receiving a basic, cheap Android phone. Eventually, the teenager finds a way to get their own iPhone, leading to a huge majority of the teenagers surveyed owning an iOS-powered device over an Android device. There’s a discrepancy between the iPhone’s dominance and Android’s popularity worldwide, making it an interesting subject for market research.
