New iPhone Buyers Upgrade From Even Older Phones
CIRP tracks all sorts of data on iPhone buyers, including how long they had the phone they just replaced. There is a long trend toward hanging on to that old phone longer. How much longer matters, and in the most recent data there is a jump in the age of the phones that buyers just replaced.
Generally, we look at twelve-month data on the age of the phones that iPhone buyers are retiring. That removes any seasonality in consumer purchase and upgrade patterns. For this analysis, we look at the four quarters ending in September of each year.
The percentage of US iPhone buyers who retired phones they had three years or longer surged to 42% in the year ending September 2025, up from 32% last year and 24% five years ago (Chart 1). Only 29% of buyers replaced a newer (two years old or less) iPhone, compared to 41% five years ago. These are significant shifts, and we have some ideas about the consumer tendencies that drove them.