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By Mikey Campbell
Thursday, October 11, 2018, 04:55 pm PT (7:55 pm ET)
Apple's iOS is catching up to Google's Android in terms of customer loyalty, continuing a three-year trend.
Citing fresh polling data, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reports iOS loyalty rates hit a high of 89 percent in September. That compares to a 92 percent loyalty rate for Android over the same period.
CIRP surveyed 500 people in its quarterly survey. Loyalty was measured as the percentage of users who have a particular operating system when activating a new phone over a trailing year.
From September 2016 through September 2018, Android Loyalty plotted at between 89 and 92 percent. Over that same period, iOS's loyalty was between 85 to 89 percent, CIRP says.
The latest results represent new highs for both platforms, and are coming to Apple and Google.
"Loyalty has been crept up for both iOS and Android in the past two years," said Mike Levin, partner and co-founder of CIRP. "Basically, for the past three years, around 90 percent of US smartphone users remain with their operating system when they buy a new smartphone."
Apple over the past few months has become a focus on so-called "switchers" as it seeks new avenues of growth in developed markets. A CIRP analysis in June found roughly 20 percent of new iPhone users came from the Android camp, though many switchers at the time were electing to enter Apple's ecosystem through cheaper handsets like SE iPhone.
"Over time we've seen analysis that predicts OS switching, especially from Android to iOS, will increase going forward," said Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of CIRP. "That's absolutely possible, but it would represent a significant change in the long-term trend.
It appears both Apple and Google have their work cut out for them in their respective markets.
"In the past two years we've seen loyalty rates of iOS and Android begin to converge," Levin said. "While the data shows Android has a slighly [sic] higher loyalty rate, iOS has narrowed what is a small gap to, to the point of both, the same, very high loyalty. "
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