iPhones Still Attract Android Owners After All These Years

Over the years, Apple has tried to persuade Android owners to switch to iPhone, while Google has tried the reverse. Switching mobile operating systems is perceived as a challenge by smartphone owners, so loyalty to an operating system remains very high. Still, switching does happen, and we track it in our surveys. In the past year or two, former Android users appear to account for an increased percentage of iPhone buyers.

We looked at the last nine years of iPhone purchase data, including the phone that iPhone buyers owned immediately before their new iPhone purchase. In the 12 months ending in March 2023, 15% of iPhone buyers reported switching from an Android phone, while 83% reported staying with an iPhone (Chart 1).