iPhone upgraders are driven by more practical reasons
Thinking about upgrading to the iPhone 16? You certainly aren’t alone, as we speed towards Apple’s launch event on September 9 – but a new study has broken down why most of us are considering taking the plunge.
A new report from CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners) reveals the results of its survey, which asked respondents why they were upgrading to a new iPhone (in the year up to June 2024).
The number one reason, chosen by 44% of people, was simply because their current phone was ‘obsolete’. For iOS 18, those phones include the iPhone 8 series and first-gen iPhone SE – so it’s likely that a significant number of iPhone 16 buyers will be coming from those models, rather than more recent ones.
On a similar theme, the second most popular reason for upgrading (which covered 29% of respondents) was because their current phone was «lost/broken/stolen». In total, that means 73% of iPhone upgraders are doing so because they’re effectively forced into it by their current situation, rather than for any new whizz-bang features.
Only 18% of people in the survey said they were upgrading their iPhone to get «new features», which is a surprisingly small number.
