The iPhone's popularity among teens continues to grow, according to new data gathered by investment firm Piper Jaffray for the fall edition of its semiannual U.S. teen survey.
78 percent of teens surveyed own an iPhone, up two percent from the spring 2017 survey conducted earlier this year. 82 percent of teens said their next smartphone will be an iPhone, the highest amount of interest ever noted in one of these surveys.
This jump in interest can perhaps be attributed to the 2017 iPhone lineup, which includes the iPhone X with an edge-to-edge display and a TrueDepth camera for facial recognition purposes.
Teen interest in the Apple Watch is also up, and 17 percent of teens surveyed said they plan to buy an Apple Watch in the next six months, up from 13 percent in spring 2017.
Piper Jaffray says the survey is a "positive point" on iPhone 8 demand and iPhone X demand, and increasing interested in the Apple Watch.
Apple Music also made an appearance in the survey, gaining share alongside Spotify and YouTube as teens move away from streaming services like Pandora.
On-demand music services like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music (30%, 20%, and 17%) continue to gain market share among teens, as more traditional platforms and Pandora continue to lose share.
Piper Jaffray's fall 2017 teen survey covered 6,100 teens across 44 states in the United States with an average age of 15.9 years.
Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026.
"I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...
Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld.
The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld.
Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...
Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by Juli Clover
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do.
The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up.
Upgraded Architecture
The next-generation...
Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April.
Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far.
iOS 26.3
iPhone to Android Transfer Tool
iOS 26.3 makes it easier...
The iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a bigger battery for continued best-in-class battery life, according to a known Weibo leaker.
Citing supply chain information, the Weibo user known as "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a battery capacity of 5,100 to 5,200 mAh. Combined with the efficiency improvements of the A20 Pro chip, made with TSMC's 2nm process, the...
Are that many kids parents actually buying them new phones? I get handing your old iPhone down, but I have a hard time imagining that that many parents are willing to spend $1000 on a phone for their kid to check Facebook.
It's almost exclusively due to herd mentality -- people at that age especially want to fit in and not be missing out (making sure they have the same platform for iMessage, apps, etc).
I wish I had a phone at all when I was a teen. My parents never bought me a phone growing up and now that I'm an adult, I bought my mom an iPhone. Imagine that.
It's hard to believe these surveys that tell us X% of the population is switching to iPhone. If that were true, why does Android continue to take the biggest share of the mobile market?
Survey is to U.S. Teens only. There's an awful lot of NON U.S. Teens in the world, and an awful lot of people in the world living OUTSIDE the U.S.
Stats like "own an iPhone" is likely counting plenty of old, ancient, hand-me-down iPhones (as many posts in this thread support too). Owning an iPhone 4, 5, 6, 7 doesn't show up as new sales in market share measurements in the present. In other words, the market share reports are generally measuring & comparing present sales (over the last quarter or maybe over the last year), not counting old unit sales too (even those in use). I bet if they asked the same group of teens if they own an iPod, the percentage that own one would also be very large... and Apple quit selling them how long ago?
Not long ago, Apple themselves announced that they had sold their 1 billionth iPhone. Does that mean that 1 billion people in the world own an iPhone? No. How many iPhones have you owned? Each of those count. How many people around here have bought an iPhone every other year in the last 10? Every year? How many old iPhones in that tally are retired to a drawer? Or dumped into a landfill? Or long-since recycled? Spin can sound good. Dig deeper.
This survey is conducted by a firm that is a consistent Apple Fan. Can we really trust that it is an unbiased & objective survey? Survey- say- only Republicans about what they think of the Democratic platform and the numbers being against will be dramatic. Extrapolate that out to be able to imply that almost all Americans are against Democratic party ideals. Do the same with passionate Democrats and see the opposite outcome. Extrapolate that out to almost all Americans and apparently all Americans are against Republican ideals. Survey Pepsi people about Coke. Or Coke people about Pepsi. Survey Apple People about Windows and then Windows people about Apple. Magically, targeted (biased) surveys can yield impressive results to support a desired outcome or message. Note: I'm no insider at Piper, so this could be a completely unbiased survey, but Piper really pushes Apple (AAPL)- when have you ever seen a bearish call on AAPL by Piper? Can they do a survey that is unbiased when they are such fans (and consistency pushing the stock)?
This survey asked kids averaging 16 years old what do they have and what do they want. Odds are high that if any of them are getting new iPhones, it's parents buying them for them. When one is not actually having to earn the money to buy that something they say they want, it's pretty easy to wish for all kinds of stuff that you may never actually buy. For example, survey a bunch of young guys about what car they want and some will probably want a Lambo. Extrapolate that out and you can report that some surprisingly high percentage of all American young men want a Lambo. Then check back in 5 or 10 years later with them and see how many actually bought one.
Price can override wishing & hoping (with no money). If the 'rents give Junior/Juniette an Android instead, does the kid reject a new cell phone or maybe whine a little and then roll with it? Think back to when you were 16 and asked your parents for bigger (cost) things- maybe new car. Did they buy you the car you wanted? Latest & greatest new? Or did you maybe get some other, lessor & used car? Did you reject a car because you only wanted the specific one you coveted? Or did you take the one they purchased for you (because you probably were not out making the money to buy the one you longed for).
Lastly, Android is the OS driving all kinds of phones. iOS is exclusive to just a few models. That market share "war"(?) is long since lost, just as the computing OS share was dramatically lost when Microsoft licensed Windows to everyone while Apple opted to keep it's OS exclusively to it's own computer line. There's tons of phones (and computers) priced far below Apple products running Android (and Windows). Price rules for many, many consumers, here in the U.S. and with the approx. >95% of the people NOT living in the U.S. (and thus not counted in this survey).
Are that many kids parents actually buying them new phones? I get handing your old iPhone down, but I have a hard time imagining that that many parents are willing to spend $1000 on a phone for their kid to check Facebook.
Mine got a hand me down for her first one, and iPhone 4. She then got a 5S (she paid for the phone, I covered the plan) and later and SE. No way I'm handing a teenager a $1k phone. She broke the screen on the 5S and had to live with it until it was paid off. She learned her lesson on the 5S and now has insurance on the SE.
