New Survey Claims iPhone Loyalty Is Tanking As Customers Seek Android Alternatives

The smartphone market is stagnating as phones have changed little in the last few generations, while prices have soared for new devices. This means that more and more people are hanging onto their smartphones for longer periods of time. A survey from a company that specializes in phone trading, called BankMyCell, is claiming that iPhone loyalty is on the decline.

The survey claims to have looked at 38,000 phone trades since March of last year and found that 15% more people have traded in their iPhones for another brand. BankMyCell noted that Samsung sees much better retention numbers than Apple and that many of the Apple people ditching their iPhones are moving to Samsung products.

The report claims that last month, 18% of iPhone traders chose to move to a Samsung device. The report claims that 7.7% of Samsung Galaxy S9 users plan to move to an iPhone.

There is some reason to doubt the rain on Apple's parade that BankMyCell is predicting; Kantar Research shows that iPhone devices accounted for 35% of all phones sold in the U.S. in Q2 2019, which was a decline of 2.4% compared to the same quarter of 2018.

The next big "upgrade push" is expected to be seen as users move to 5G devices, but Apple's 5G phone isn't rumored to arrive until next year. Anyone who wants to jump over to 5G right away will be trading an iPhone for an Android device, and likely a Samsung device. Apple's iPhone refresh this year isn't expected to be very exciting with the most prominent feature being the addition of another camera on the back and rumored reverse wireless charging.