iPhone Loyalty Hits 87% as Android Switching Slows

iPhone loyalty reached 87% in the first quarter of 2026, according to new data from research firm CIRP. That is up from 84% in the same quarter a year earlier, as fewer new iPhone buyers arrived from Android.

CIRP found that 12% of new iPhone buyers in the March quarter had switched from an Android phone. The remaining 1% came from a feature phone, another smartphone platform, or were buying a smartphone for the first time. In the same quarter of 2025, 14% of buyers had switched from Android.

CIRP has tracked this behavior for years by asking iPhone buyers which device they owned immediately before their purchase, along with questions about how they shop. In recent reporting periods, Android switchers have stayed within a relatively narrow 11% to 15% range. That is considerably smaller than during the iPhone’s early years, when Apple was expanding beyond AT&T to additional U.S. carriers and gaining large numbers of new users.

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The pattern was similar in early 2024, when 13% of iPhone buyers came from Android and loyalty stood at 85%. CIRP’s figures suggest most smartphone owners have already settled on a platform, leaving only a small share willing to switch each year. Other recent surveys have identified a similar pattern, although their methodologies and results differ.

Apple is expected to roll out Siri AI, its overhauled assistant, in iOS 27 later this year. That could help the company retain existing iPhone owners, but attracting Android users is a different challenge. Apple’s upcoming foldable iPhone may give the company a new opening with Android foldable owners seeking a different form factor.