Brand loyalty at an all-time high of 92% for Apple and the iPhone

The “2021 Cell Phone Brand Loyalty Report” from SellCell (a site for selling phones online), which surveyed over 5,000 U.S. smartphone users, finds that brand loyalty for Apple is at an all-time high while Android brands take a dive.

Thanks to the COVID pandemic, 2020 was a rough year for smartphone vendors.

Following a decline in the first three quarters, however, the smartphone shipments saw a positive rebound in quarter four thanks to heavy demand for iPhone 12 units, which also helped Apple beat its rival Samsung in sales for the first time in four years.

The SellCell urvey reveals the brand loyalty for Apple is at an all-time high of nearly 92% (up from 90.5% in 2019). Meanwhile, Samsung loyalty has dropped 11.7% from 85.7% in 2019 to 74% in 2021. Other key points from the SellCell survey:

• Apple users are nearly 18% more loyal to their brand than Samsung users
• 26% of Samsung users will jump ship to another brand next time they upgrade.
• Of the Samsung defectors, a majority (53%) will switch to an iPhone the next time they upgrade, with most (31.5%) indicating privacy concerns as the main reason for the switch.
• At over 25%, value for money also seems to be a significant rationale for switching away from Samsung.
• Much like Samsung, brand loyalty among Google Pixel users has dropped 18.8% from 84% in 2019 to 65.2% in 2021.
• Motorola and LG users are the most disloyal bunch, with circa 71% and 62.6%, respectively, of existing users stating that they will be looking to move when they upgrade.
• 46.6% of respondents think the new iPhone 12 range is the best range vs. 30.4% who think the S21 range is their favorite.
• Nearly 92% (91.9%) of iPhone users intend to buy another iPhone when they next upgrade, up 1.4% from 90.5% in the 2019 survey. Only 8.1% intend to switch to a different brand.