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Over 80% of teens don't 'Think Different', prefer iPhone to Android

The results are part of a larger picture in which teens love of the iPhone gets stronger with each passing quarter.
By

Published onApril 10, 2018

TL;DR
  • A survey by Piper Jaffray concludes that over 80-percent of American teens prefer iPhone over Android.
  • The results are part of a larger picture in which teens love of the iPhone gets stronger with each passing quarter.
  • The survey curiously doesn’t mention which teens are getting iPhones as hand-me-downs from their parents, the likely reason so many teens prefer iPhones.

Everyone remembers what it was like being a young teenager and being desperate to fit in with the in-crowd. Who hasn’t looked back at photos from their younger years and laughed at how silly they looked decked out in the fashion of the times? “That’s not really me,” you say to yourself, “I was just going through a phase.”

Speaking of fitting in and going through phases, a new survey concludes that 82 percent of American teenagers own iPhones, and a whopping 84 percent of teens say their next phone will also be an iPhone.

The results stem from Piper Jaffray’s “Teens Survey,” via Business Insider, which obtains its data from thousands of kids across America with an average age of 16.

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But here’s where things get truly frightening: last fall, when the same organization conducted a similar survey, it found that 78 percent of teens currently owned an iPhone. This new 82 percent number is not only higher than a few months ago, but the highest iPhone-ownership stat the survey has ever seen.

The graph below paints a chilling picture of just how much teens want to have exactly what their friends have with no regard for usability, uniqueness, or choice:

teens prefer iphone

Are these teens all crazy? What are they doing, eating laundry detergent pods or something?

We can’t really blame the teens, though. Scientifically, teenagers are hardwired to want to fit in as much as possible.

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Tim Smith, the principal adolescent psychologist at Sydney’s Psychology and Counseling Group, says, “Fascinating and complex changes occur within the developing adolescent brain that influence thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, placing unique psychological challenges on young people.” He surmises, “Adolescence is an especially challenging time in this regard.”

With that in mind, don’t blame the teens for wanting a phone that looks like everyone else’s phone and has a logo associated with wealth and prosperity. They’re just going through an awkward phase and will eventually become their own unique selves and will want a phone that reflects that new identity.

NEXT: On first dates, iPhone users 21 times more likely to negatively judge Android users