Apple Announced Other Products, Too, and That’s Important for Some iPhone Buyers
Not a bad launch announcement last week for Apple, as it rolled out the new iPhone 16 models. A little lost in the Apple Intelligence hype were Apple’s other new products: a new Apple Watch and new AirPods models, with some nifty features.
Notably, Apple didn’t announce any new iPads or Macs. In recent years, they save these product launches for other times of the year. The big annual launch announcement in September is all about iPhones and now, their two principal accessories. We thought we’d look at those iPhone and accessory customers.
Specifically, we analyze which of these important Apple accessories iPhone buyers also own. We looked at all Apple customers that bought an iPhone in the twelve months ended June 2024. For these iPhone customers, about 60% also own an Apple Watch, and a little more than one-third own AirPods (Chart 1). Interestingly, this ownership rate varies considerably by the segment of iPhone buyer. Buyers that upgrade their iPhone more frequently are much more likely to also own these accessories.
Chart 1: Apple Watch and AirPods Ownership Rates by Age of Previous Phone (twelve months ended June 2024)
Both of these iPhone extensions are extraordinarily successful. While they rely on iPhones and effectively are only useful to iPhone owners, they are huge businesses on their own. Both seamlessly connect and enhance the iPhone owner experience, but Apple Watch has a slight advantage. Apple Watch’s primary competition for smart wearables are fitness trackers, with no other smartwatch offering the same range of function. Airpods on the other hand compete with many Bluetooth earbud options, including some from known, trusted, premium brands.
The bigger insight is the distinction between different cohorts of iPhone buyers. We have previously noted that iPhone buyers hold their old phones longer before buying that new iPhone. We see here the speedier upgraders are better consumers of the rest of Apple’s iPhone ecosystem.
Almost two-thirds of iPhone buyers who had their previous phone for less than two years have an Apple Watch, compared to fewer than half of iPhone buyers who had their old phone for three or more years. The Airpod data is similar. Slightly more than half of the faster iPhone upgraders have Airpods, compared to only 30% of those upgrading from a phone they owned for three or more years.
We think segmenting iPhone buyers in this way is a powerful tool for understanding how the iPhone and the entire Apple ecosystem function.