Thinking about upgrading to the iPhone 16? You actually aren’t alone, as we velocity in direction of Apple’s launch occasion on September 9 – however a brand new research has damaged down why most of us are contemplating taking the plunge.
A brand new report from CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners) reveals the outcomes of its survey, which requested respondents why they had been upgrading to a brand new iPhone (within the yr as much as June 2024).
The primary cause, chosen by 44% of individuals, was just because their present telephone was ‘out of date’. For iOS 18, these telephones embody the iPhone 8 sequence and first-gen iPhone SE – so it is possible {that a} vital variety of iPhone 16 patrons will likely be coming from these fashions, quite than newer ones.
On an identical theme, the second hottest cause for upgrading (which lined 29% of respondents) was as a result of their present telephone was “misplaced/damaged/stolen”. In complete, meaning 73% of iPhone upgraders are doing so as a result of they’re successfully compelled into it by their present scenario, quite than for any new whizz-bang options.
Only 18% of individuals within the survey stated they had been upgrading their iPhone to get “new options”, which is a surprisingly small quantity. In the iPhone 16’s case, these new methods are anticipated to be new Apple Intelligence-powered AI instruments, together with Clean Up for images, together with a brand new A17 Pro (or A18 Pro) chip, an Action button on all fashions, and battery upgrades.
It’s potential that, after launch, the iPhone 16’s particular enhancements might change that image for upgraders and enhance the proportion of these switching for brand spanking new options, however wanting on the rumors to this point we might say that is unlikely – with these survey outcomes reflecting the difficulty that almost all of us are holding onto our telephones for longer, attributable to a mixture of plateauing innovation and longer software program assist.
The iPhone conundrum
The days of monumental {hardware} leaps between iPhone fashions – most notably, within the realm of cameras – have been over for a while, and this survey displays that actuality. Around three quarters of us get a brand new iPhone just because we now have issues with our previous telephone, whether or not that is operating iOS or Android.
That stated, it’s possible that the variety of folks upgrading to the iPhone 16 for its new options will likely be larger than the 16% on this survey, given it lined all iPhone fashions. And as we have beforehand argued, the iPhone remains to be in all probability the one telephone that is really value upgrading to yearly, when you’re that approach inclined.
One of the explanations for it’s because iPhones have a tendency to carry their worth higher than Android telephones, which makes common trade-ins extra interesting (and upgrading cheaper). The different, much less complementary, issue is that Apple tends to be slower in rolling out new options to iPhones in comparison with Android, so there’s usually extra worth in every improve.
A big variety of iPhone 16 patrons can even possible come from Android, in accordance with current knowledge – in June 2024, for instance, 17% of iPhone patrons within the US got here from Android, which was the best switching fee for a number of years. Let’s hope the large Apple occasion delivers and offers us sufficient causes to hit up the iPhone 16 preorders, that are anticipated to start out on September 13.
