Apple has always had a reputation for holding onto its customers, but a new set of numbers puts that in pretty stark terms. According to a survey from phone trade-in site SellCell, iPhone loyalty has hit 96.4%, meaning nearly all iPhone owners plan to buy another iPhone the next time they upgrade. That’s up from 91.9% in SellCell’s 2021 survey and 90.5% back in 2019.
The survey covered 5,000 U.S. smartphone users with roughly equal representation between iPhone and Android owners. On the Android side, loyalty sits at 86.4%, which sounds solid until you compare the switching rates directly. Just 3.6% of iPhone users said they’d move to a different brand. Among Android users, 13.6% said they planned to switch, nearly four times the rate of iPhone defectors.
Where Switchers Are Headed
Of the small slice of iPhone users who said they’d leave, 69.7% said they’d go to Samsung and 20.2% said they’d pick a Google phone. The reasons Android users switch to iPhone are well-documented at this point, and SellCell’s data lines up with that pattern. Among Android users planning to jump platforms, 26.8% said their next phone would be an iPhone. The top reasons Android users cited for switching were better value, better technology, and simply wanting a change.
Samsung’s loyalty recovered significantly too, climbing from 74% in 2021 to 90.1% in 2026. Google’s Pixel loyalty rebounded to 86.8% after bottoming out at 65.2% in 2021. So the broader picture is that smartphone loyalty is up across the board. Apple just happens to be in a different league.
With 96.4% of existing iPhone owners planning to stay put, winning them over is essentially off the table for Android.