A new report from research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners today details Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launch, showing some numbers that support the company’s continued claims of increasing Android switchers and more.
It also shows that the iPhone 7 adoption managed to outpace that of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during its first month of sales, although falling short of the iPhone 6/6 Plus launch:
As for Android switchers, the report notes that the amount of customers switching from an Android device was up to around 17% this year, up from 12% for the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. CIRP notes, however, that the amount of Android switchers doesn’t seem to be a major contributor to the overall success of recent iPhone launches, with the highest number of switchers found during the least successful launch: 26% for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
“The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launch falls between the wildly-successful iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch in 2014, and the somewhat disappointing launch of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus in 2015,” said Josh Lowitz, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder. “The combined share for the 7 and 7 Plus launch is up slightly from the 71% share for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus in 2015, and down considerably from the 81% share for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus benefitted from a new form factor, a larger screen, and the introduction of the even larger and premium-priced Plus model.”
Apple has made a point of highlighting record Android switchers at its recent earnings calls and indeed said it had more Android to iPhone switchers than ever before during its fiscal Q4 call with investors last month.
“The two more successful iPhone launches in the last three years were driven by existing loyal iPhone owners who upgrade to a new iPhone model, and rely less on Android owners who switch to an iPhone,” said Mike Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. “When Apple launched the less compelling iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models in 2015, existing iPhone owners essentially sat out the upgrade cycle. Then, 26% of iPhone buyers came from Android, while after the very successful iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch in 2014, only 12% of new iPhone buyers can from Android.”
Users coming from other platforms, like BlackBerry and Windows, accounted for an additional 5% of new iPhone buyers, according to the report from CIRP.
While Apple never announced specifics on iPhone sales and only shared sales numbers and stats through carrier partners this year, a report late last month noted that iPhone 7 and 7 Plus accounted for around 43% of all U.S. iPhone sales in Q3. Apple’s Q4 earnings report last month covering the July to September quarter was its first to include sales of the new iPhones. Apple reported sales of 45.51 million iPhones, down from 48 million iPhones in the year ago quarter.
Update: Updated title to change “iPhone 6” to “iPhone 6s”.
