A few days before the announcement of the iPhone 16, a survey was conducted to find out what reasons people are buying a new iPhone. Unfortunately for Apple, these reasons are stupidly practical.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max // Source: Frandroid – Chloé Pertuis
Apple is playing for big this year. Its back-to-school conference scheduled for September 9 will be the occasion to unveil its AI-packed iPhone 16s, which the company hopes to sell by the pallets. But if these iPhones are a success, it probably won’t be thanks to Apple Intelligence.
As noted TechRadara new survey detailing the reasons that push iPhone users to change their mobile has just been released. Conducted by the analysis office CIRP (for Consumer Intelligence Research Partners), The latter paints a very down-to-earth portrait of the concerns of Apple customers..
More restrictive purchases than desired
For 44% of respondents, the reason for buying a new iPhone is that their old phone was simply “obsolete.” The second most common reason (at 29%) is that the phone they were using up until then was “lost, broken or stolen.” Almost three-quarters of iPhone purchases are therefore forced rather than unwanted, even if the terms “obsolete” or “broken” can leave a lot of room for interpretation.
“New features” are cited as the top purchasing criterion by only 18% of voters. Next come bonuses offered by operators (6%), the move to a better quality network (2%) and the desire to do as family and friends do (1%).
Source : CIRP – Apple Reports
Apple Intelligence or not, if there is a rush for the iPhone 16, it will have more to do with practical needs than with a desire to discover the new products concocted by Apple. This observation is not exactly a surprise since, despite all the efforts made by Apple to revolutionize its mobile, the vast majority of phones on the market are now equal from one year to the next. The period of great technological leaps of the early 2010s is well and truly behind us.
What is obsolescence anyway?
It is also interesting to see that a large majority of these purchases could be technically avoided. The notion of “obsolescence” covers several different realities, from software obsolescence to hardware obsolescence to marketing, but none is insurmountable.
To go further
Product repair: Apple’s method displeases France
Apple’s software monitoring, for example, is among the best in the industry, but there is always room for improvement. Similarly, designing phones that are easier and more fun to repair could address both the issues of hardware obsolescence and mobile breakage. To put it another way, phones themselves do not have an expiration date; it is technical and logistical choices that push for renewal. The legitimacy of the latter can always be questioned.
