Most iPhone 16 buyers will be upgrading for one simple reason, new study says – and it isn’t Apple Intelligence
iPhone upgraders are driven by more practical reasons
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Thinking about upgrading to theiPhone 16? You certainly aren’t alone, as we speed towardsApple’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 fromCIRP(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 theiPhone 8series 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. In the iPhone 16’s case, those new tricks are expected to be newApple Intelligence-powered AI tools, includingClean Up for photos, along with a new A17 Pro (or A18 Pro) chip, an Action button on all models, and battery upgrades.
It’s possible that, after release, the iPhone 16’s specific improvements could change that picture for upgraders and increase the proportion of those switching for new features, but looking at the rumors so far we’d say that’s unlikely – with these survey results reflecting the issue that most of us are holding onto our phones for longer, due to a mix of plateauing innovation andlonger software support.
The iPhone conundrum
The days of enormous hardware leaps between iPhone models – most notably, in the realm of cameras – have been over for some time, and this survey reflects that reality. Around three quarters of us get a new iPhone simply because we have problems with our old phone, whether that’s running iOS or Android.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
That said, it is likely that the number of people upgrading to the iPhone 16 for its new features will be higher than the 16% in this survey, given it covered all iPhone models. And as we’ve previously argued, the iPhone is still probablythe only phone that’s actually worth upgrading to every year, if you’re that way inclined.
One of the reasons for this is because iPhones tend to hold their value better than Android phones, which makes regular trade-ins more appealing (and upgrading less expensive). The other, less complementary, factor is thatAppletends to be slower in rolling out new features to iPhones compared to Android, so there’s often more value in each upgrade.
Our recentWhatsApp survey(above) gave us a taste of some of the more specific reasons why many are considering upgrading to the iPhone 16. The winner was the promise of better battery life, followed by the unique AI features promised by Apple Intelligence – so those features do still hold some appeal, even if it isn’t clearwhen many (including the revamped Siri) will fully roll out.
A significant number of iPhone 16 buyers will also likely come from Android, according torecent data– in June 2024, for example, 17% of iPhone buyers in the US came from Android, which was the highest switching rate for several years. Let’s hope the bigApple eventdelivers and gives us enough reasons to hit up theiPhone 16 preorders, which are expected to start on September 13.
You might also like…
Mark is TechRadar’s Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he’s contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph’s Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London’s Square Mile.
A newly reported iPhone phenomenon could be bad news for both cops and robbers
The iPhone 18 series could include a variable aperture, ‘significantly enhancing’ the camera
Belkin’s Travel Bag for Vision Pro has pockets and is way cheaper than Apple’s own case
