iPhone Brand Retention Upgrade Loyalty is All Time Low Since 2011

Apple iPhone has been facing serious brand retention issues for the past few years, iPhone brand retention was 15.2% down in 2019 as compared to the previous years, iPhone has reached the same level of 73% in 2011 when Apple released the iPhone 4S model almost similar to the previous model.

BankMyCell conducted a study comprising of 38,043 consumers in an online trade-in process. The data reveals that iPhone brand retention has reached 8-years low since 2011.  The data also reveals that iPhone XS was in the bottom of four devices for same brand upgrades, only 65.3% of users currently used an iPhone.

26.2% of individuals trading in their iPhone X moved to other brands, compared to only 7.7% of Galaxy S9 users moved to an iPhone, leaving 92.3% predominantly on Android.

In June 2019, 18.08% of people trading in iPhones had a Samsung device, this is the highest figure recorded in recent studies.

These figures are quite alarming for the iPhone to take drastic measures in order to retain brand loyalty. The study shows that during June 2019 18.08 percent of people trading-in iPhones were using a Samsung device.

24.5 percent of users trading-in iPhones during the fourth quarter of 2018 moved to new brands including Samsung, LG, and Motorola. Furthermore, 12.4 percent of iPhone users jumped to Samsung, 6.4 percent to LG phones.

If we compare brand retention of Samsung and Apple iPhone, 26.2 percent of iPhone X users switched to other brands and only 7.7 percent of Samsung Galaxy S9 users switched to an iPhone, 92 percent of users left predominantly on Android. The attraction of the iPhone getting users switched from other brands to iPhones has been fading out in 2019. The major reasons for this big change are iPhone’s slow upgrades towards Cameras, 5G, and other key technologies.