iPhone owners are remaining loyal to the platform at a higher rate than a year ago, with new research firm CIRP putting iPhone loyalty at 87% for the first quarter of 2026.
CIRP’s latest quarterly survey found that only 12% of new iPhone buyers in the March quarter came from an Android phone, with the remaining 1% coming from a feature phone, another smartphone platform or purchasing a smartphone for the first time. This puts loyalty three percentage points above the same quarter a year ago, when 14% of buyers switched from Android and the overall loyalty figure stood at 84%.
The company has been tracking this trend for years, asking iPhone buyers what device they owned right before their purchase, among other questions about how they shop. In recently measured periods, the share of buyers coming from Android has held within a fairly narrow band of 11-15%, a much smaller pool of switchers than in the early years of the iPhone, when Apple was still expanding beyond AT&T to other US carriers and thus attracting large numbers of new users.
The trend also continued in early 2024, when 13% of buyers arrived from Android and loyalty rose to 85%. CIRP figures suggest that the majority of smartphone owners have settled on one platform for a long time, with only a small portion switching sides each year. This is a trend highlighted by other recent surveys, although their methodology and figures differ from those of the CIRP.
Apple will roll out Siri AI, its revised AI assistant, in iOS 27 later this year, which could help retain existing iPhone owners. Attracting Android converts is a separate challenge, although Apple’s next foldable iPhone will introduce a new form factor that might appeal to some existing foldable Android owners.
