Teens aren't getting Samsung phones, claims new study
Hey, kids. This is a Samsung Galaxy S20. Ever heard of it?
As you observe a six-foot distance from your fellow human, do you also observe which phones teenagers are sporting?
I confess I haven't done it of late. Yet every six months, I tell myself I should.
You see, every six months a well-known study into teens' habits comes along with a hulla and a baloo. And every six months I wonder if there are any teens left with Samsung phones.
Piper Sandler, the investment bank artists formerly known as Piper Jaffray, have long emitted studies of teens and their brand choices. The latest is the company's 39th.
And for as long as I've observed it, every six months more and more teens say they have iPhones and insist their next phones will be iPhones too.
This 39th edition of the study declares 85% of teens own an iPhone and 88% fully expect their next phone to be an iPhone. These are both records.
One might conclude that today's teens and both conservative and dull. Naturally, I seek to find greater nuance.
The surveyors spoke to 5,200 American teens with an average age of 16.2. How might it be that so many claim to have iPhones?
Is it that these iPhones and handed down by bored parents, desperate to burnish their fading images with newer models?
Or could there be some sad herd effect, where teens are being forced to have iPhones -- poor things -- because all their friends have them and iMessaging is so much easier that way?
Please, I rarely talk to teens for fear of being shown 300 dancing videos on TikTok. (It happened at Christmas and it was strange.)
It's true that smartphone sales aren't in the ascendance. Samsung is, however, still the world's biggest seller of phones. Is it possible that there will soon be nary a teen to be seen with one?
It's stimulating to imagine, though, that Samsung phones might be some sort of a mature choice. Yes, children, play with your Apple toys for now, but when you grow up, you'll want a Galaxy.
Surveys, you should always be wary of them. They can do strange things to your mind.