iPhone's Share of New Smartphone Activations Declines to 33% in the U.S. [Chart]
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Posted April 24, 2024 at 9:44pm by iClarified
The iPhone's share of new smartphone activations in the United States has continued to decline, according to a fresh report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
Over the past four quarters, iPhone activations have reportedly dropped from 40% to 33%. This is based on an estimate of activations performed during the 12-month period ending each quarter. CIRP performs a quarterly survey to capture all phone activations and says the trailing 12-month period eliminates functuations due to seasonality.
In some respects, the current one-third share represents a return to a much earlier time. Six years ago, Apple iPhone captured a similar share of activations. Then, operating systems beyond iOS and Android, including Blackberry and even some Windows phones controlled a portion of the smartphone market. Apple's share increased steadily until the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and has now returned to the historic level of about one-third iPhone, two-thirds Android.
CIRP suggests that the move from two-year subsized phone purchase contracts to more transparent phone purchase plans has resulted in some customers waiting longer to upgrade their current device. It appears this may be affecting Apple a bit more than their Android rivals.
On one hand, the iPhones are admittedly getting pricier with every release compared to how they used to cost in the mid-2010s, On another, the phones largely feel a bit too similar from the form factor to what some users might appreciate in terms of the feature that may convince them or not to want to upgrade. The average user like me upgrades quinquennially, which will be the case going from my XR to choosing between the 13/14/15 Pro mostly for the huge leap in camera and battery jump (and flagship feature depending on which ones I will rely on the most). This is how I can afford to wait long enough before I must upgrade, but part of what might not have users upgrade right away is how long it takes for the phones to eventually become obsolete (even if it must take about a decade considering how it’ll be a while before my current model being 5-6 years old does) forcing users to evolve with the world between constantly transitioning technology to support alongside security updates. If every third party carrier could support monthly payments would it be a different story.