Apple products continue to be tops with teens, as a recent Piper Sandler survey results show that 87% of U.S. teenagers own an iPhone, while 88% expect it to be their next smartphone choice.
Piper Sandler has released the results of its 45th semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” survey, which shows the buying habits and purchase expectations of teens across the United States. The survey results show that Apple continues to be popular among young adults.
Piper Sandler says the 87% iPhone ownership and 88% iPhone purchasing intent are near-record highs for the semi-annual survey.
The results bode well for Apple, as high penetration and purchase intentions are important in what is considered a mature smartphone market. It also “proves the overall stickiness of the product portfolio.”
41% of teens also own a smartwatch, compared to 37% from one year ago. The Apple Watch is a big reason why smartwatch ownership among teens is on the rise, as Apple Watch ownership is at 35%, up from 31% last fall.
Teen’s intention to purchase an Apple Watch also increased, if just slightly. 15% of surveyed teens plan to buy an Apple Watch in the next six months, compared to the 14% figure back in Spring 2022. Upper-income teens continue to favor the Apple Watch, although that figure dropped to 39%, down from 47% in the Fall 2022 survey.
It makes sense that if the iPhone and the Apple Watch are popular with teens, Apple Pay would be also. Apple Pay is considered the top payment app among teens, with the best penetration of young adult users at 39%. Cash App followed with 25%, with Venmo coming in at 23%.
As for services, approximately 41% of iPhone or Apple users surveyed said they either use or plan to use iCloud+ Private Relay to increase their privacy. 24% say they already do, which is up from 22% in 2022 surveys.
Apple Music lags behind Spotify among teenagers, with 36.4% saying they had used it during the previous six months, while 68.1% preferred Spotify. It appears that 44% of respondents used multiple music services.
80% of responding teens said they paid for at least one music streaming service. 44.3% of teen Spotify users said they paid for a music streaming subscription versus 31.5% for Apple Music. Apple’s music streaming service has a “higher percentage of payers,” which Piper Sandler suspects is partially due to its being included in the Apple One bundle.
Piper Sandler surveyed 5,690 teenagers in 47 states with an average age of 16.2 years. About 40% of the surveyed teens were employed on a part-time basis. Polled teens belonged to families with an average household income of $67,691.