iPhone Owners Hold Onto Their Devices Longer Than Android Users Due to This Reason
How long do you keep your phones? Would you use an iPhone longer than an Android phone? You may not have the answer to these questions right away, but you can’t deny software support for iPhone longevity. Plus, with their consistent design across generations and fewer cases to upgrade, it’s no surprise that iPhone users often keep their devices longer than Android users.
Now, a new report from Consumer Research Partners draws attention to this fact, stating that the average iPhone user is less likely to upgrade to new models compared to their Android counterparts, resulting in “a smaller share of quarterly and annual smartphone sales.” According to the report, 61% of iPhone buyers kept their previous iPhone for at least two years, compared to 43% of Android owners. Additionally, 29% of iPhone owners kept their previous iPhone for at least three years, compared to 21% of Android owners.
“Far fewer iPhone owners (10%) owned their previous iPhone for a year or less, compared to nearly a quarter of Android owners,” the report added.
Now you would be interested to know why this happens. First, contrary to the popular belief that iPhone users are more likely to upgrade because they have more purchasing power compared to Android users – which mostly consists of the budget for the mid-range market, but this is not the reason why it happens. instead, it’s because the affordable nature of most Android phones makes customers more likely to “retire” the phone and buy a new model.
Additionally, Apple iPhones are released once a year (excluding iPhone SE model releases and new color options), compared to the countless models released by Android OEMs, including Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Sony, and Google itself. So iPhone users only have one catalyst to switch to a new phone compared to multiple Android users.
That being said, flagship Android phones these days offer build quality as good as iPhones, if not better, and have software support that surpasses it. The Google Pixel 8 series, launched earlier this month, comes with the promise of seven OS updates – which is definitely more than what Apple offers or what other Android OEMs do. So, we might see this trend gradually disappear, at least in flagship Android phones.
