Our colleague Guille Lomener already said it: “I went to the United Kingdom and it was almost easier to see the king than a person using Android.” It is clear that Apple has won with young people, that This is the favorite brand. But what is the reason? In this article, we try to analyze the causes and reasons.
Drake and the War of Consciousness
Those of us who grew up with iTunes know that music has always been a very important segment for Apple, for its identity and its way of expressing itself as a brand. Meanwhile, Apple Music is implementing improvements thanks to AI, has a streaming quality higher than Spotify, is enriched with content thanks to Apple Music Classical and… well, there are even people using iPods in 2024, a clear symbol of Apple’s relevance and image. in this matter. What we may not have known is that Apple has sown a footprint that, more than ever, has borne fruit: that all kids want to have an iPhone.
For decades, dozens of artists have used the iPhone as an ornament in their lyrics, as a status symbol. You’ll rarely read something like “my Xiaomi” in a Drake song, but it’s common to hear them where the iPhone appears next to a Gucci bag or a Lambo. Something that has caught on among young people: if you have an iPhone, things are better, you seem to be better. Otherwise, either “you’re poor” or you pretend to be. And nobody wants that: fake it till you make it. A war of image that Apple won without burning any ships. A war of conscience.
Teens Want an iPhone… They Hear It Every Day
Yes, the iPhone is a mobile phone. However, the word “iPhone” carries social conventions and has associated behind it, A whole philosophy of life. It shows. In the US, Apple won that popularity contest years ago: 87% of teenagers owned an iPhone. Best of all? Also, 87% of respondents said their next device would be another iPhone. Do you still have a “droid”? This excellent article prepared by the Wall Street Journal sarcastically said: paraphrasing users between 15 and 22 years old.
Something that seems to be a thermometer in the rest of the world and that is causing the commercial status of Android devices to fall. Semester after semester, Taking Stock With Teens demonstrates exceptional robustness and reliability. Because, in addition, the Apple Watch contributes to this change: given the availability of an iPhone, Better to enrich the experience with more elements of the Apple ecosystem.
We detected a magnificent example of success in a tweet published by Manuel Prol for TuAppleMundo, where the proportion of iOS terminals is overwhelming:
On Friday I went to see a Saiko concert.
The people were between 16 and 25 years old.
What brand of phone did 90% of respondents use? 🤯 pic.twitter.com/XwP0JMKTwT
– TuAppleMundo – iPhone, iPad and iOS (@TuAppleMundo) August 27, 2023
As this post illustrates, teenagers have iPhones. And it doesn’t matter how new they are, as long as you get to experience some of that feeling. It’s engagement. Compared to users who feel FOMO about the current iPhone 15 – or the imminent iPhone 16 – and do not want to miss this new advancement, those who “need” the latest model at all costs, many of these young people prefer an iPhone SE. That is why an iPhone SE 4 is such a sought-after piece, because we are talking about a very beloved family, even if they have tried to “kill” it on several occasions.
Let’s put ourselves in a teenage perspective. What’s wrong with betting on a slightly outdated model from four or five years ago, inherited from your elders or found by Wallapop at a great price, rather than betting on a new Androidupdated hardware and the warranty and technical support that comes with it? The pictures are good, the songs sound great and the performance in social apps is brutal, why else?
Apple has earned this status
Let’s not rush to judgment: we’re talking about well-deserved fame. Apple released a security update for the iPhone 5S last year. That implies more than ten years of support, commitment to those who continue to use this model. Let’s not forget the battery replacement program and the active “spare parts” market. Not even the devaluation reports. According to the annual report on the depreciation of phones, the average indicates that iPhones lose much less value than Android mobile phones. In other words, the kids will be able to resell it and make a lot of money along the way.
Apple has managed to become synonymous with durability and reliabilitywhich fuels a fertile second-hand market, encouraged even by its own refurbished program. And we could still mention another aspect: the iPhone has a curious power of attraction.
Let me explain: the iPhone continues to convey that air of sophistication and elegance of an expensive gadget and the friendly appearance of something economical, accessible, more “humble”. We said at the beginning that Apple had won a war without even having to fight it. This is not true: Apple devotes a lot of effort in its promotional campaigns to the youth sector. It masters the Christmas narrative just as it masters the language of TikTok and its rising stars.
This is obviously not the case everywhere: young Vietnamese of Asian origin, Indonesians and Malaysians prefer a cheap, powerful but modest mobile phone to an iPhone. In these countries, Xiaomi and POCO sweep without reservation. Maybe it’s just a matter of time, of a change of status. Popularity figures among chavalada have only increased. In 2014, it was already radical. Now, fold that data.
An older version of this article was originally published on 07/29/2023.
Cover | Guilherme Stecanella for Unsplash
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