October 10, 2024 – In Piper Sandler’s latest 2024 fall survey, emerging trends among U.S. teenagers reveal Nike’s continued dominance as their favorite brand, while Apple’s iPhone maintains its strong foothold in the youth market.
The survey, which polled over 13,500 teens from 47 states, highlighted that 87% of the respondents own at least one iPhone. A notable finding was that nearly 30% of these teenagers are planning to upgrade their devices within the next six months, primarily driven by Apple’s Intelligence features.
Furthermore, the survey indicated a high level of brand loyalty towards Apple, with 88% of the teens anticipating their next smartphone purchase to be an iPhone. However, there seems to be a slight slowdown in the upgrade cycle as approximately 22% of the participants expressed their intention to switch to iPhone 16 this fall or winter. This percentage is marginally lower than those who planned to upgrade to iPhone 15 last year (23%) and iPhone 14 in 2022 (24%). The data suggests that the average generation gap behind the latest iPhone 16 has increased to three generations, compared to 2.5 generations two years ago.
Interestingly, Apple’s other products also enjoy significant popularity among the teenage demographic. For instance, around 70% of the surveyed teens own AirPods, and a quarter of them are looking forward to purchasing new AirPods in the coming six months.
Additionally, the survey revealed a high adoption rate of Apple’s iPad and Apple Watch, with over 30% of the teens claiming to own all these devices. Although Apple TV+ seems to have less appeal, with only 10% of the teens using the service, Apple Music maintains a steady presence, with about one-third of the respondents stating they are subscribers.
