Apple has been named the most popular watch brand amongst upper-income teenagers in the United States.
The Cupertino company has overtaken Rolex to become the most popular watch brand, according to a Piper Sandler fall 2021 survey Taking Stock with Teens.
The report was based on responses taken August 17 through September 16 from 10,000 teens across 44 American states averaging 15.8 years old.
The survey revealed that smartwatch ownership in the United States has increased from 30% to 35% among teens, and 30% of teens now own an Apple Watch. Apple actually holds a staggering 86% market share among teen smartwatch owners, an incredible feat indeed.
What is more interesting is that Apple has overtaken Rolex to become the most popular watch brand in the demographic.
The survey showed that 30% of teens use a fitness app when working out, and 50% of those use an Apple app. Around 67% of teenagers own a pair of Airpods, and 87% own an iPhone in America.
More than 22% of those surveyed also said they are planning to upgrade to an iPhone 13 unit in the fall or winter.
Meanwhile, ownership increased to 20% for fall 2021 for the iPhone 12, up from 12% in the spring. However, the number of iPhones older than two years being used by those who took the survey has dropped down by 12%, indicating that upgrades are becoming more and more frequent.
Piper Sandler managing directors Harsh Kumar and Chris Donat wrote, “These trends are encouraging as the company continues to introduce new 5G iPhones, which could provide a significant product cycle refresh. We think these positive trends can also be a catalyst for further services growth as well, as the initial base for Apple hardware continues to grow.”
Aside from the hardware, the survey revealed 56% of teens were not interested in Apple’s iCloud+ service, and 50% were concerned about their Internet activity being tracked.
The survey found that 85% of teens still prefer to use cash as their method of payment, and Apple Pay is the second most-used option at 35%, up from 32% from the survey done in spring. Meanwhile third place goes to PayPal, now 22% from 24%, followed by prepaid cards at 18%, also down at 2% from the spring survey.
The Piper Sandler report noted, “While we are somewhat surprised by the cash penetration among teens, we believe it is a function of 35% of teens surveyed not having a traditional bank account. We expect as teenagers get older, they will graduate to electronic payments methods such as Apple Pay, PayPal, and others.”
Image: Apple