Apple Customer Loyalty Statistics 2026: Retention, Switching and Ecosystem Data

iPhone loyalty stood at 87% for the first quarter of 2026, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). That puts loyalty three percentage points above the same quarter a year earlier. In the March 2026 quarter, 12% of new US iPhone buyers reported moving from an Android smartphone. Those two Apple customer loyalty statistics come from the same quarterly survey of US iPhone buyers.

SellCell’s survey, which asks owners about their plans, runs higher. SellCell surveyed over 5,000 smartphone users in the US and found iPhone loyalty stands at 96.4%, up from 91.9% in 2021. The stated figure sits 9.4 points above CIRP’s observed reading, because one counts intent and the other counts purchases. The gap matters most when either figure gets quoted as Apple’s loyalty rate with no method attached.

Key Takeaways

• SellCell’s stated iPhone loyalty of 96.4% runs 9.4 points above CIRP’s observed 87%, so either figure needs its method attached when quoted.
• The share of US iPhone buyers who retired phones they had three years or longer surged to 42% in the year ending September 2025, up from 24% five years ago, according to CIRP.
• Used iPhones accounted for 12% of iPhone purchases in the twelve months ending in June 2026, according to CIRP, which keeps older handsets inside the platform.
• In the 2026 cell phone study by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Samsung scored 81, narrowly ahead of Apple at 80, in the same period CIRP’s loyalty reading rose.
• 83.8% of iPhone users have stayed with the brand for more than 5 years, against 33.8% of Android users, according to SellCell.
• 38% of Apple customers own all three core devices, an iPhone, an iPad, and a Mac computer.

Editor’s Choice

• iPhone loyalty rate, first quarter of 2026: 87%.
• New US iPhone buyers coming from Android, March 2026 quarter: 12%.
• Apple installed base, January 2026: more than 2.5 billion active devices.
• US teens who own an iPhone, fall 2025: 87%, according to Piper Sandler.
• Recent US Apple device buyers paying for iCloud storage in the most recent quarter: 70%.
• Apple brand value in the Interbrand ranking: $470.9 billion, according to Interbrand’s 2025 list.

iPhone Loyalty Rate Statistics

• CIRP put iPhone loyalty at 87% for the first quarter of 2026.
• The remaining 1% of buyers arrived from a feature phone, a different smartphone platform, or bought a smartphone for the first time.
• For the twelve-month period ending in June 2025, iPhone had a loyalty rate of 89% in CIRP’s survey of all smartphone buyers.
• The loyalty rate was lower for iPhone users who changed mobile carriers.
• CIRP tracks this by asking iPhone buyers what device they owned right before their purchase.

Source: CIRP via MacRumors (July 2026); CIRP Apple Report (August 2025)

About This Data

• Sources: 37 published pages, 22 of them CIRP Apple Report posts, plus 5 Apple press releases, 4 ACSI study releases and 2 Piper Sandler releases.
• Also cited: one page each from SellCell, MacRumors, Interbrand and Kantar.
• Publication window: February 2023 to October 2026.
• Selection: sources that publish their own survey, scores or company results, plus one news report of CIRP’s figures and one reprint of an ACSI release.
• Updates: reviewed on a rolling basis, with figures updated when sources publish new editions.

What is Apple’s customer retention rate?

CIRP’s quarterly reading puts iPhone loyalty at 87% for the first quarter of 2026, and its twelve-month figure to June 2025 was 89%. Apple does not publish a retention rate of its own, so these survey readings are the closest public measure of how many iPhone buyers stay.

iPhone vs Android Brand Loyalty Statistics

• Android loyalty stands at 86.4%, with users nearly four times more likely to switch than iPhone users (13.6% vs 3.6%).
• The loyalty gap between iPhone and Android now stands at 10 percentage points.
• SellCell’s stated 96.4% sits 9.4 points above CIRP’s observed 87% loyalty reading.
• iPhone loyalty has increased from 90.5% in 2019 to 91.9% in 2021, and now 96.4% in 2026.
• SellCell asked users whether they plan to stay with their current brand when they next upgrade.

What brand has the most loyal customers?

In SellCell’s 2026 survey, iPhone loyalty of 96.4% came ahead of Samsung at 90.1% and Google at 86.8%. Samsung loyalty fell to 74.0% in 2021 before recovering. These are stated plans, so the order shows which owners say they will stay, not which ones did.

Recent Developments in Apple Customer Loyalty Statistics

• July 17, 2026: MacRumors reported CIRP’s iPhone loyalty reading of 87% for the first quarter of 2026, up from 84% a year earlier.
• 2026: In the six-month period ending in March 2026, 68% of Android switchers bought one of the new flagship iPhone 17 models, against 80% of legacy iPhone owners.
• July 30, 2026: Apple said its installed base of active devices reached a new all-time high across all major product categories and geographic segments.
• 2026: As of the June 2026 quarter, 39% of iPhone buyers had their previous iPhone for three years or more.
• 2026: Apple and Samsung shared the lead at 81 among personal computer brands in the ACSI 2026 study.
• 2026: Used iPhones accounted for 12% of iPhone purchases in the twelve months ending in June 2026.

Android to iPhone Switching Statistics

• The share of buyers coming from Android to iPhone has held in a fairly narrow 11% to 15% band in recent years.
• 14% of buyers switched from Android in the same quarter a year earlier.
• 26.8% of Android users who would switch choose iPhone.
• About one-quarter of buyers switch mobile carriers when they buy a new smartphone, with a slightly higher percentage of Android users than iOS users switching.
• Carriers account for just over three-quarters of total sales, while Apple’s retail business accounted for 16% of US iPhone unit sales in the year ending June 2025.

Switching carriers turns out to be a point of vulnerability for Apple, because loyalty to iOS declines when an iPhone owner moves to a new mobile phone company. Most US iPhones are sold through carriers, in store or online, and CIRP notes carrier store staff can influence whether a customer stays with iPhone or switches to Android.

Why iPhone Users Stay With Apple

• 60.8% of iPhone users who plan to stay cite brand preference, and 17.4% cite the Apple ecosystem.
• Brand and ecosystem account for 78.2% of reasons for staying.
• Almost half of Apple customers would repair or replace an iPhone “immediately” or the same day, while only one-quarter would do so for an iPad.

Why are Apple’s customers so loyal?

Brand preference (60.8%) and ecosystem investment (17.4%) account for 78.2% of the reasons iPhone users give for staying. Almost half of Apple customers would repair or replace a lost or broken iPhone immediately or the same day. An owner replacing a phone that same afternoon has little time to compare platforms.

Why iPhone Users Switch to Android

• 25.8% of would-be iPhone switchers cite better value from other brands, and 24.7% say iPhones are too expensive.
• Price and value account for over 50% of switching reasons.
• iPhone switching stands at 3.6% in the 2026 survey.
• 69.7% of iPhone switchers choose Samsung phones.

Better technology draws 22.5% of would-be switchers, and 14.6% prefer Android. The destination question has a short answer: among iPhone switchers, 20.2% choose Google Pixel and 10.1% choose Motorola, with Samsung taking the rest.

iPhone Brand Tenure Statistics

• 83.8% of iPhone users have stayed for more than 5 years, against 33.8% of Android users.
• iPhone users are nearly 2.5x more likely to be long-term users.
• 23.1% of Android users upgrading within 6 months plan to switch, while iPhone switching remains between 3 and 6% across all groups.

Among iPhone users planning to upgrade within the next 6 months, 6.0% plan to switch, against 3.2% of those upgrading in more than 2 years. The upgrade moment is when owners reconsider, so a longer gap between purchases also leaves fewer chances to leave.

iPhone Upgrade Cycle and Holding Period Statistics

• Only 29% of buyers replaced a newer (two years old or less) iPhone, compared to 41% five years ago.
• The average age of retired iPhones has increased about 50% over at least six years.
• The two-to-three-year cohort in the middle continues to shrink to 28%, down from 35% two years ago.
• Almost half of buyers say their old phone needed replacing: a battery failed to hold a charge, a display was cracked, or the processor was too slow.
• Buyers retiring relatively new phones focus on the features of their new iPhone (36%) and rely on carrier incentives (22%).
• About half of US iPhone buyers trade in or sell their previous iPhone.

Source: CIRP Apple Report (2025 to 2026)

Among buyers who replaced a phone that was one year old or less, 79% report the battery works well and 72% report the screen is “perfect”, so fast upgraders retire phones that still work.

CIRP estimates 9% of recent iPhone customers purchase or otherwise acquire a used iPhone, and about one-quarter of used iPhone activators report receiving them as some form of a hand-me-down, from a friend or family member. Each hand-me-down keeps a second person on iOS without a new sale, a form of retention that sales-based loyalty rates do not capture.

Key finding: CIRP’s data shows US iPhone owners holding phones longer, with 42% of buyers retiring a phone three or more years old in the year ending September 2025 against 24% five years earlier, and used iPhones reaching 12% of purchases in the year to June 2026, so loyalty increasingly lives in older and second-hand handsets.

Apple Ecosystem Ownership Statistics

• iPhone remains the most dominant product, with 90% of recent Apple customers owning one.
• About 10% more of the owners of all three core devices pay for upgraded iCloud storage, while AppleCare purchasing is the same for the elite and their less connected counterparts.
• Owners of all three devices are about one-third more likely to use Apple Music than the one- and two-device owners.

Apple Watch, AirPods and Services Attach Rates

• Among iPhone buyers, 40% own some sort of smartwatch or fitness tracker, and for 85% of them it is an Apple Watch.
• Apple Watch holds about a 96% share of all smartwatches among Apple product owners, with Fitbit and Garmin accounting for the rest.
• More than two-thirds of recent US Apple device buyers report paying for iCloud storage in the past 12 months.

Attach rates differ by product and by the group CIRP measured them against, so each figure below keeps its own base.

Source: CIRP Apple Report (2025 to 2026)

Paid iCloud storage, which starts at $0.99 a month, is Apple’s most popular subscription service, and 70% of recent US Apple device buyers report paying for it in the most recent quarter. In the twelve-month period ending June 2025, 42% of recent iPhone buyers had a Bluetooth headset, and 43% of Apple customers in the June 2025 quarter reported having one of the Apple One packages. Photos and backups stored in iCloud are one of the quieter costs of leaving, since they have to move with the owner.

Apple Customer Satisfaction Scores

• In the 2026 ACSI cell phone study, Samsung takes the top industry spot with a score of 81, narrowly ahead of Apple, down 1% to 80.
• Apple and Samsung tie at 80 at the top of the 2026 smartwatch leaderboard.
• Apple (82) cedes the top PC spot to HP (83) after tumbling 4% year over year, in the 2025 study.
• The 2026 study is based on 26,963 completed surveys collected between April 2025 and March 2026, per the ACSI 2026 study release.

Worth noting: The ACSI’s 2026 cell phone study scored Apple 80, one point behind Samsung, after the two tied at 81 in 2025. CIRP’s iPhone loyalty reading rose three points over a similar stretch, so a satisfaction dip this small has not dented CIRP’s loyalty reading, which points to switching costs and habit as well as product quality.

Apple Installed Base Statistics

• Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple’s installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, in Apple’s January 2026 results release.
• Kevan Parekh, Apple’s CFO, said that “thanks to our very high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, our installed base of active devices also reached a new all-time high” in October 2025.
• Apple’s installed base of active devices reached another all-time high across all major product categories and geographic segments by July 2026.
• Apple reported more than 2 billion active devices in its installed base in February 2023, and more than 2.5 billion active devices in January 2026.

Apple links that growth to loyalty in its own words, which makes the installed base the closest thing to a retention figure the company reports.

Teen iPhone Loyalty Statistics

• 87% of US teens reported owning an iPhone in Piper Sandler’s fall 2025 survey, and 17% expected to upgrade to an iPhone 17.
• In the spring 2025 survey, 88% of teens owned an iPhone, with 25% expecting to upgrade to an iPhone 17.

Are Gen Z less brand loyal?

Piper Sandler’s fall 2025 survey found 87% of US teens own an iPhone. The figures Piper Sandler published here cover ownership and upgrade plans, not switching, so they cannot show whether teens are less loyal than older buyers. They do show most US teens already own an iPhone.

Apple Brand Value Rankings

• Interbrand reports that Apple’s brand value has dropped by 4% from 2024, in its 2025 ranking.
• Kantar BrandZ ranked Google first at $1.5 trillion and Apple second at $1.4 trillion for 2026.
• In 2025, Apple retained its top Kantar position for the fourth year, with brand value up 28%.

Source: Interbrand (2025); Kantar BrandZ (2025 and 2026)

What is the most loved brand in the world?

None of the sources here measures brand love directly; brand value rankings are the closest measure this article draws on. Kantar BrandZ put Google first at $1.5 trillion for 2026, with Apple second at $1.4 trillion, while Interbrand valued the Apple brand at $470.9 billion at the top of its 2025 list. The two rankings use different methods, so their dollar values should not be compared with each other.

Conclusion

CIRP’s 87% iPhone loyalty reading and SellCell’s 96.4% stated loyalty describe US iPhone customers from two angles: what buyers did and what owners plan. Both point the same way, with satisfaction slipping a point while retention holds, which suggests the ecosystem and longer ownership now do more of the work than any single product launch.

The readings to watch next are CIRP’s quarterly loyalty figure after the next iPhone launch and the following ACSI study, which will show whether higher prices start to move owners at the carrier counter.