Yes - right now. If 87% of teens in the US have iPhones, what do you think will happen to that stat in the US and then the world, where people copy-paste US trends to feel wealthy or cool (even adults)?
The subheading does specify that is in the US. And in the main text of the article, the very first line in fact, it mentions that Android has the largest market share worldwide.
Guys, should an essential device be "cool"? It doesn't hurt, don't get me wrong... But is it a good reason to buy a device you need?
Buy this shit because it works, not because it's cool. Android lets you do more, so I own one. That's it. Fuck Google, I just want to install third party apps.
These are teenagers. Buying anything is done under the consideration of how cool it is. Literally everything else is not important during consideration, what matters is having the thing that makes you socially accepted.
If old school cell phones with monochrome pixel displays and zero functionalities beyond telephone and sms were trending, instead of just being a niche for people fed up with social media, kids would buy that in a heartbeat.
You probably forgot how overwhelmingly important social status and belonging to a group is at that age.
Classmate once rocked up with that new thing called „iPhone“ and was the coolest kid on the block. Then I took out my Siemens M35 and showed them my swappable front covers, and said that each week I would put a different one on.
Suddenly this ancient brick was cooler than an iPhone.
Kids and teens are very easily convinced that something is cool
Yeah they did a very clever thing for the past decade or so, by slapping their illuminated logo onto their laptops, then aggressively contracting TV studios to have the actors use Macs
Like the other person said...
Had a warranty issue with a Samsung a few years ago that kept it out of my hands for a couple of months, bought a cheap and nasty $50 phone that was part of a prepaid package here in Australia, just happened to be a Nokia windows phone. It was about the lowest end model you could get....
And I too was kinda stunned how much I liked it.
I went into the experience with a fairly negative attitude thinking I'd suffer though it until my regular phone was repaired.
Yet came out looking it more than I'd like to admit.
So... Yeah... Would have been great for windows mobile to stick around.
I had a job once that issued me a Nokia Windows phone and I was stunned by how much I actually sort of enjoyed the experience. Granted all I did was check emails, ACK alerts and message coworkers on it, so admittedly a very intentionally on my part pared down user experience. Sadly Windows phone didn't last long enough to figure out if that was the result of Microsoft, or the result of Nokia.
Apple may have a monopoly on teens in the US, but the fact that most android phones are cheaper, more powerful, more customisable and look better, will keep Google in the top spot with android.
Also, and I realise this is anecdotal, but where I'm from in the UK, having an iPhone stands you out as a bit of a dullard. Wasted money and all that.
Why are iPhones so popular in the US compared to Europe? Is it a peer pressure kind of thing? Or simply status? The difference seems to be pretty substantial and I don't think it can be explained by user experience alone.
I think it has to do with the messagin app.
For some reason in the us it's still common to use plain sms messages, which on an iPhone get translated to the blue bubble, but when sent to an android become the infamous green bubble.
This is however not the case in the EU bc sms messages were still expensive enoughfuring that time that when whatsapp released, everyone did the switch so as to not to pay the sms fees, and now, even if sms are basically free, everyone uses whatsapp as the default messaging app.
And as we know on whatsapp there's no differentiation of anything regarding the device you are sending messages to, so no constant reminder of "this guy had an android".
The blue bubbles mean you’re using iMessage, which is encrypted. You don’t have to download a separate app owned by Facebook which makes texting iPhone to iPhone so much better.
While other commenters are correct about the marketing in some aspects. As a parent of teenagers I will say if they don't have an iPhone they will be mocked relentlessly. The whole bubble color thing is real. They think androids are for poor people even though androids have a much larger range of price. This isn't a "my kids" thing. This is a "everyone in school thinks" thing.
God help me when they get their next upgrade and suddenly my chargers start going missing because "someone stole" theirs...
What's the carrier situation like in the EU? Do they market the iPhone aggressively in Europe? I'd suspect both of those may have some influence on the difference, but I'm as interested as you in what's affecting the differences in adoption between both regions.
Iphone is the superior phone for people that really dont want to know how a operating system works and dont want to learn either. Always when i talk about something i do on my phone that Apple has locked its users out of doing my iPhone-friends go "That sounds complicated" when its mostly basic af. I would not even dare call myself a power-user, because i am not. Its just that iphone is perfect for the tech illiterate.
A lot of it is due to peer pressure, marketing, and such.
I'm not from the US, but I knew people, who berated Android for having lower-end models (which meant even their flagship models are lower-end), some models still having headphone jacks (one of them screamed at me for buying a wired mouse, thus not insentivizing manufacturers to develop even better wireless technologies, thus enabling him to have a wireless audio interface and a portless Macbook (would be super elegant)), etc.
There's also Apple's massive foothold in the education market. I guess kids using iPads are more likely to stay with other Apple devices in the future.
If the US had a functioning FCC that wasn't toothless aka their own Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, and Digital Markets Act, iMessage wouldn't even be a special.
When Jobs kicked the bucket, RMS rightfully said that this mf'n evil genius has figured out a way of making people run to their stores with their arms stretched forward, asking them to handcuff them.
Whoever considers an iPhone as a status thing is generally broke anyway. I personally own both S23U and i14PM and I still use S23U because it helps me in my daily life much more than an iPhone. People claiming something about others based on a fucking phone preference aren't worth my time.
Everyone knows that's a thing. Text and Android from an iPhone and the iPhone suddenly slows down, starts sideloading random apps, and Siri won't shut up about how much customization Android allows for. /s
I honestly think that is only a thing in the USA. Nowhere else in the world thinks like this. Also the type of bullying and even school shootings that we see and hear are mostly only-USA issues so I think there is something really wrong with teens over there.