Unshakeable Devotion: Why 96% of iPhone Users Refuse to Leave
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Apple customers are more loyal than a Golden Retriever with a tennis ball, and the vast majority of iPhone users say they’ll buy another iPhone when it’s time for their next upgrade, reports Mactrast.
A smartphone loyalty survey conducted by phone trade-in site SellCell shows 96.4% of iPhone customers surveyed said they planned to buy another iPhone, with a mere 3.6% saying they would opt for a different phone brand when it’s time to buy. That’s a 4.5 percentage point increase from the 91.9% of respondents in the 2021 survey who said they’d stay in Apple’s walled garden next time around.
Meanwhile, Android users are much less loyal to their smartphones, and are four times more likely to switch than iPhone users are. Only 86.4% of Android users said they would stay in the Android camp, while 13.6% said they planned to change horses mid-stream.
Here are the key findings of the survey:
- iPhone loyalty proved to be 96.4%, up from 2021’s 91.9%.
- Android loyalty stands at 86.4%, with 13.6% of Android users more likely to switch.
- Loyalty among Samsung users is currently 90.1%, which is up from 74% in 2021.
- Google loyalty is up to 86.8%, up 21.6% from 2021’s 65.2% loyalty level.
- Price and value continue to be the biggest drivers of those deciding to switch.
The numbers show that brand seems to be more important than platform when it comes to loyalty, which makes sense when you consider how much the Android experience can differ between companies. This tracks with iOS and the iPhone, which represent a single brand, but even by those metrics, Samsung and Google still place well behind Apple.
The survey also showed that iPhone owners are more loyal over time, with 83.8% saying they had carried an iPhone for over five years, while only 33.8% of Android users said they had stuck with the same brand for over five years — although that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re crossing the floor to iOS.
Where Are the Switchers Going?
Out of the 3.6% of iPhone users who said they would opt to change device platforms, 69.7% (2.51% of all iPhone users surveyed) said they would switch to the Samsung camp, while 20.2% (or 0.73% of the total) said they would opt for a Google smartphone. Motorola accounted for the remaining 10.1% (0.36%), with other brands effectively relegated to a rounding error.
The fact that Samsung seems to be capturing most of the interest from those looking to leave the iOS fold shows how much of a two-horse race the smartphone market truly is. However, it’s also still winning more hearts and minds than Apple is within the Android camp.
While 26.8% of the Android users who said they’d switch (3.64% of Android users surveyed) said they’d choose an iPhone over an Android smartphone, that came in second to the 31.5% (4.28% of the total) who expressed a desire to stay on Android but switch to a Samsung device instead.
Meanwhile, although the clear majority of iPhone users (82.6%) said they would stick with an iPhone because they prefer Apple devices for various reasons — whether that’s due to brand, stability, trust, or ease-of-use — 17.4% said they were simply too deep into the Apple ecosystem to change.
About half of the iPhone users who said they would likely switch cited economic factors — the expense of the iPhone or the feeling that other brands offer better value — while 22.5% expressed the feeling that Android offers better technology.
SellCell’s survey was limited to 5,000 US respondents, and the firm says there was a roughly equal representation between iPhone and Android users. They conducted two separate surveys that were made up of the same question structure.
You can find more information about the survey at the SellCell website.
