82% of Teens Surveyed Now Own an iPhone, 84% Plan to Purchase

Tuesday April 10, 2018 1:22 pm PDT by Juli Clover
The iPhone continues to be the most popular smartphone by far among teens, according to new data gathered by investment firm Piper Jaffray for its most recent semiannual teen survey in the United States.

82 percent of teens surveyed own an iPhone, up from 78 percent in the fall of 2017, while 84 percent of teens expect their next phone to be an iPhone, up from 82 percent in fall 2017. Teen ownership and interest in iPhone has grown steadily over the past several years, as demonstrated in the chart below.


The Apple Watch is also becoming more popular among teens and saw its highest teen survey share yet in the spring of 2018. 12 percent of upper income teens said Apple Watch was their preferred watch brand, up from just seven percent in the fall of 2017. Among all watch brands, Apple Watch was the second most popular after Rolex.


20 percent of teens said they plan to buy an Apple Watch in the next six months, up from 17 percent in the year-ago survey. Strong growth in Apple Watch interest in the current quarter suggests Apple's Series 3 and Series 1 models are popular among teens.


Interest in both Apple Watch and iPhone could see improvement in the coming fall 2018 survey, as major changes are rumored for both devices.

The Apple Watch Series 4 could bring the first design changes for the wrist-worn device, while rumors suggest Apple will be introducing three iPhones in 2018, including a 5.8-inch iPhone X followup, a larger 6.5-inch OLED device that can be thought of as an "iPhone X Plus" and a 6.1-inch LCD device that's expected to carry a lower price tag.

All three iPhones are rumored to include an iPhone X-style design with an edge-to-edge display that does away with Touch ID in favor of Face ID.

For the spring 2018 teen survey, Piper Jaffray surveyed a total of 6,000 teens with an average age of 16.4 and an average household income of $66,296. 45 percent of teens surveyed were female, while 55 percent were male.

Tags: Piper Jaffray, teen survey
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555gallardo
24 months ago
Why would anyone in the world compare students' interest in $300 Apple Watch versus $50000 Patek Philipe?
Rating: 30 Votes
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reden
24 months ago
Those green bubbles, and can’t be part of a group message is what makes everyone without an iPhone feel like an outsider. It’s brilliant and Apple doesn’t have to spend a dime to advertise that.
Rating: 19 Votes
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WhoDaKat
24 months ago

If this says 12% of teenagers had a Apple Watch in 2018, does that mean 41% of teenagers have a Rolex? Something doesn't smell right.
Rating: 17 Votes
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'Arry
24 months ago
82% of surveyed teens have a totally hot girlfriend. She lives in Canada. You wouldn’t know her.
Rating: 13 Votes
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jclo
24 months ago


If this says 12% of teenagers had a Apple Watch in 2018, does that mean 41% of teenagers have a Rolex? Something doesn't smell right.


I clarified this in the post. This is specific to "upper income" teens and it looks like it's actually brand preference rather than actual ownership. It was poor wording on my part in the original, and I am pretty sure 41 percent of teens don't have a Rolex. Sorry for any misunderstanding here -- hope that clears it up.
Rating: 11 Votes
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Greenmeenie
24 months ago
Apple should launch their own version of facebook. One that doesnt data mine or run ads. With such a large and growing user base, it seems like a no brainer to me. Tim Cook spoke Friday about how their customers aren’t their product and how he wouldn’t be in a situation like Zuckerberg finds himself in, so why not launch your own social media app and capatilize on FaceBooks troubles?
Rating: 10 Votes
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78Bandit
24 months ago
Random survey taken on Rodeo Drive no doubt.
Rating: 10 Votes
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wakedoo
24 months ago


If this says 12% of teenagers had a Apple Watch in 2018, does that mean 41% of teenagers have a Rolex? Something doesn't smell right.



Those were my exact thoughts. This makes no sense. 41% of teens do not own a rolex
Rating: 8 Votes
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BlargKing
24 months ago

Look at sales of Macs. Growing in general, though slowly. Then look at PCs, sales decreasing. Then consider that Macs probably have twice the useful life of PCs. Do you think user time on PCs compared to Macs is increasing? I don't think so.


Twice the useful life my rear, at least so far as doing anything remotely intensive. Considering most Macs are far behind PC in terms of performance at the time of purchase, professionals are going to have to replace their entire machines far more frequently than someone who buys a high end PC. The PC I built 4 years ago is still going strong, my mothers, brothers, and my own laptops are all still running smoothly after 2 years.

PCs don't break down nearly as fast as some people like to believe.

Sales growth doesn't necessarily mean PC is dying, maybe its because you can get a powerful PC for half the cost of a Mac and people aren't replacing them as often.

And it may be a small niche of the whole market, but I'm seeing more and more creative professionals abandoning Mac and getting a PC because of the same reasons. Cheaper, faster, just as reliable.
Rating: 6 Votes
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itsmilo
24 months ago

You know I thought the desired blue text vs green text was just some meme but when my niece told me that teens today would make fun of you if you had the green text, then I realized how Apple is THE brand, the IN thing among teens. No surprise to me.

It reminds me of when the 2way sidekicks were the IN thing vs the texting through the keypad on a fliphone.


Probably an american thing. I have no one to iMessage with cuz literally everyone insists on using WhatsApp. Sometimes I write them on iMessage on purpose but it’s just not working.
Rating: 6 Votes

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