The Inevitable iPhone Monopoly in the United States
American teens are hooked on the iPhone, and that spells trouble for all Android manufacturers
This past week I visited New York City with my sister. And in that time we rode the New York City subway…a lot. Being the people watcher that I am, it was clear to see that the iPhone is the dominant smartphone in the city and the United States as a whole. These subway cars were littered with iPhones and AirPods. This is not a massive surprise as the iPhone currently has a 55% smartphone market share in the United States. But the troubling thing for Samsung and other Android manufacturers is that most of the people that I saw using iPhones were younger people: teenagers and young working adults.
A recent survey by Piper Sandler painted a grim picture for the future of Android phone sales in the US: 87% of teenagers in the United States currently own an iPhone with 88% expecting the iPhone to be their next device. This would translate to dominance for Apple in the smartphone space in its most important market. And if it were to come to pass, the US would find itself staring a monopoly in the face. But what are the repercussions of this, and is there anything that Android OEMs can do to pique the interest of the American teenager?
