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Guess which phone American teens are asking their parents to buy for them

Lulu Chang
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Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
Apple’s key to continued success? America’s teens.

They don’t just set trends in high school — the younger generation in the U.S. is determining what’s hot and what’s not both across industries and across the country. And when it comes to smartphones, the teens have spoken — the iEmpire reigns supreme. As per new data from Piper Jaffray gathered as part of its recent U.S. teen survey, 76 percent of youngsters in America who own a phone own an iPhone, a figure that is seven points higher than it was in the spring of 2016. It also makes the iPhone the single most commonly owned device in the teen market today.

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And that trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. 81 percent of teen respondents said that their next smartphone would be an iPhone, another six percent increase from 75 percent this time last year.

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So what makes the iPhone so desirable? Apparently, it’s the ability to stream video, shop online, and send and receive messages. But wait, you say, can’t … all smartphones do that? Sure, but apparently, Apple has some secret sauce that keeps the teen demographic wanting more. And as the iPhone’s popularity has increased, it looks like Android devices are becoming less desirable in teenagers’ eyes. Whereas last year, 17 percent of respondents said their next phone would be an Android, only 13 percent reported the same this year.

Outside of Apple, another “A” company has also won over teenagers in America — 43 percent of respondents said that Amazon was their primary online shopping destination, and 17 percent said that all their shopping now takes place online. But Amazon’s video offerings aren’t quite as popular as those from competitor streaming service Netflix, which was cited by 38 percent of teens as their video viewing platform of choice.

And as for social media, unsurprisingly, Snapchat takes the cake. 39 percent of Jaffray’s study participants said they used Snapchat most often, with Instagram coming in a distant second at 23 percent. Facebook, which is doing all it can to emulate Snapchat these days, tied with Twitter for third place at 11 percent.

So pay attention, tech companies. Apple is doing something really right when it comes to young customers, and it will likely pay off to pay attention to what that is.

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Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
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