Long iPhone Holders are Economical, Not Cheap

As we thought about the impact of onerous tariffs on Apple devices sold in the US, we considered whether iPhone customers would just pay more for a new iPhone, or hang onto their existing iPhone longer. Those tariffs may be off for now, but it got us thinking about the iPhone buyers who upgrade from the oldest iPhones, hanging on to their phones the longest.

As we’ve shown previously, iPhone owners keep their current device for a longer time than they used to. Our latest data (from the quarter ending December 2024) shows an astounding 45% of iPhone buyers had their previous phone for three years or more.

What do these owners look like? Notably, they tend to buy more expensive current models, rather than opting for the lower-priced legacy models still sold.

First, let’s look at what iPhones these buyers are retiring. In the December 2024 quarter, those buyers whose previous phone was at least three years old had really old iPhones. Over half had an iPhone 11 or even lower number model. Apple launched iPhone 11 in 2019, so these buyers replaced phones that were at least five years old (Chart 1).