Okay, so Justin Bieber may not be the average teenager, but he is rocking an iPhone just like the majority of teens these days. Piper Jaffray’s survey of 5,600 teenagers in the United States finds that interest in the iPhone among the high school demographic continues to rise.
34 percent, or a hair over one-third, of respondents said they already own an iPhone. Of those who do not, 40 percent indicated that they plan on purchasing one within the next six months. Taking a look back at the same survey from Piper Jaffray exactly one year ago, only 17 of teens owned an iPhone and 37 percent who were iPhone-less wanted to buy one in six months. The number of teenagers in possession of an iPhone has doubled in a single year.
My guess for the explosive growth is not because of the cheaper iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 models, but the expansion of the iPhone onto Verizon Wireless and Sprint. As someone on the verge of completing the high school lifestyle, I can say iPhone usage drastically changed since the two new carriers started selling it. In the beginning of 2011, three main groups of high schoolers existed: iPhone owners, Android phone owners, and regular cell phone owners. The Android army had a fighting chance, but almost all teens once loyal to Google’s OS are now proudly touting their Apple device. It seems that most people owned Android phones because their carrier gave them no other worthy choice. As of now, almost everyone I know has an iPhone.
Piper Jaffray also asked the same teenagers whether they owned a tablet or e-reading device and if they planned to in the future. 34 percent of teenagers own a tablet, which is the same amount as those who own an iPhone, but only 19 percent of respondents who didn’t expressed interest in buying one soon. 17 percent own an e-reader and there’s a tiny 5 percent who do not wish to.