According to a new report released by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), new smartphone activation during the last year was even split between iPhone and Android.

CIRP estimates that both iOS and Android had 50% of new smartphone activations from Q2 2020 to Q2 2021. iOS has seen its market share in the new activation department rise from ~30% in 2017 to 50% in 2021.

This marks a big win for Apple as it has successfully tied the game with Android. Android has several players in the market, and each company adds a set of features to attract a different set of users. This makes it difficult for Apple to compete as the company releases only one iPhone in a calendar year. Despite this, nearly 50% of the new smartphone activations in the last year were iPhone.

Moreover, CIRP says that people who already own an iPhone tend to buy a new iPhone, rather than switching to Android. The report claims that iPhone buyers have a greater loyalty towards Apple than Android buyers have for their own brand. iPhone buyer loyalty has increased from 86% in 2018 to 93% in 2021. Whereas for Android, these numbers hover around 90-93% in the past three years.

“In the most recent quarter, Apple had an edge in loyalty, with 93 percent of prior iPhone owners upgrading to a new ‌iPhone‌, compared to 88 percent of Android owners staying with Android. Over several years, iOS gained about five percentage points in loyalty, while Android remained flat. This allowed Apple to steadily increase the iOS share of new smartphone activations.”

CIRP surveyed 500 people in the USA who activated a new or used smartphone in the period from April to June this year. Given the small sample size, the numbers might look a bit exaggerated but the data provides a reliable look at activations and loyalty over time as it uses the same survey each quarter.

With iPhone 13 just around the corner, do you think iPhone adoption will take over Android? If you’re in the market looking for a new smartphone, which one would you buy — iPhone or Android? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!