A smartphone loyalty survey has revealed the unsurprising news that Android users are 3.7 times more likely to switch to iPhone than the reverse. More interestingly, it shows that iPhone brand loyalty has increased significantly in the last five years …
SellCell carried out a large-scale survey of US smartphone users.
Brand loyalty in the smartphone market has long been dominated by Apple, but how does that loyalty look in 2026? To find out, SellCell surveyed over 5,000 smartphone users across iPhone and Android phones in the USA, exploring whether users plan to stay with their current brand, what drives those decisions, and where switchers are heading next.
While 5,000 might sound like a small number, it’s actually a very statistically robust sample.
The company asked smartphone users what they expected to buy next time they upgraded their phone. As you’d expect, 96.4% of iPhone users said they would buy another iPhone, with just 3.6% expecting to switch to Android.
It was a markedly different picture the other way around, however. Among Android users, a full 13.6% said they intended to switch to iPhone – almost four times higher.
The firm also measured changing loyalty levels over the years. iPhone brand loyalty has increased from 90.5% in 2019 to 96.4% in 2026, with most of that growth occurring since 2021.
When iPhone users were asked why they remained loyal to the company, the majority (60.8%) said that they simply prefer iOS, while a substantial number also did so because they were invested in the Apple ecosystem (17.4%). Other reasons for preferring Apple were product reliability, ease of use, and trust in the company’s privacy and security measures.
Among the minority who would switch to Android, price was the overwhelming reason.
You can see other results from the survey here.
- Official Apple Store on Amazon
- Apple’s iPhone cases: iPhone 17 | iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max | iPhone Air
- Wireless CarPlay adapter (2026 update)
- AirTag holders and accessories
- Mac Pro-style Mac mini casing
- NordVPN – privacy-first VPN with no logs and independent audits to verify
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