Smartphone users are increasingly choosing Apple products, compared to Samsung phones that run on the Android system, especially with the rise recorded in younger groups’ demand for the American company’s products in recent years.
From Europe to Asia, Apple’s influence in the phone market is increasing, and surveys show that people in their teens and early 20s, referred to as Gen Z, increasingly prefer iPhones, thanks to its unique features.
This trend puts Android phones, Apple’s main competitor, under pressure and threatens the South Korean company’s progress in the smartphone market in general, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Samsung is betting on its Galaxy S23 Ultra phones, which are foldable and with advanced zoom cameras (100x), in order to curb the growth of the influence of Apple, which began to compete with the Korean company in its heartland, since the opening of its first official store in the country in 2018.
In just two years, the number of iPhone users between the ages of 18 and 29 in South Korea has risen to 52 percent, according to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea.
The data showed that Samsung’s share of this age group decreased to 44 percent, at a time when it is still the most prevalent among all older Sunni groups.
The Wall Street Journal report predicts that Apple’s prevalence among young people will increase the American company’s dominance in the high-end phone business.
Apple’s share of shipments of smartphones priced at $800 and above grew from 65 percent in 2018 to 76 percent last year, at a time when Samsung fell from 27 percent to 17 percent, according to Canalys, a technology market specialist.
China was one of the main drivers of Apple’s growth, according to the newspaper, after US sanctions crippled Huawei phones, Apple’s other competitor.
Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker by total shipments, has been around since 2012, but rival Apple is threatening its continuity at the top, as Samsung’s market share has remained steady at around 21 percent over the past five years, while rising Apple’s share to 19 percent in 2022, from 15 percent, in 2018.
Last year, global shipments of smartphones priced over $800 rose 1 percent, while total smartphone shipments fell 12 percent, according to Canalys.
In this context, Tom Kang, an official at Counterpoint Research Technology Research, says that advanced smartphones are essential for phone makers, because they achieve the largest profits and show the capabilities and technological leadership of companies.
In the United States, where Apple holds 77 percent of the most developed smartphone market, the proliferation of iMessage, Apple’s widely used messaging app that assigns different colors to iPhone and Android users, is one of the main reasons for the rise in popularity of iPhones.
Young people all over the world say they are attracted to Apple’s exclusive features such as AirDrop, which allows for easy file sharing between iPhones, in addition to the aspects related to the quality of photography and video, and the rest of the technical characteristics.