Gen Z loves Apple, teen iPhone ownership on the rise

Piper Sandler polled the teens from the "first digitally native generation" in the semi-annual "Taking Stock with Teens" survey. The investment firm carries out the survey semi-annually, releasing the previous results in October 2020.

In the poll, 88% of respondents said they already own an iPhone. That number moves to 90% when stating what they want their next phone to be. Those numbers are up slightly from the previous survey. In October, 86% said they owned an iPhone, with 89% saying they intended to purchase one.

In a first for the survey, Piper Sandler asked payment-related questions. Apple Pay came in second only to cash as teens' preferred payment method. Venmo was the most-used among payment applications.

Piper Sandler says Apple's brand is strong among fashion preferences as well. The survey cites AAPL as one of the companies with a "positive" reception in that category. Amazon and frequent Apple partner Nike also made that list.

Nike is also thriving with GenZ. "If it has a Swoosh on it," the results read, "teens are wearing it." Nike is the top brand in both the apparel and footwear categories. Apple CEO Tim Cook sits on Nike's Board of Directors.

Teens are also doing more online shopping. 56% of respondents say Amazon is their favorite e-com site. App Store favorites Snapchat and TikTok are their favorite social platforms. The teens spend an average of 12 hours per week on social media.

Piper Sandler has been conducting its teen polls for 20 years, collecting 9.7 million data points around teen preferences and shopping during that period. The poll received 7,000 responses from 47 different U.S. states. In the regional breakdown, the South represented 48% of responses, followed by the West at 20%, the Northeast at 10%, and the Midwest at 22%. The average respondent age was 16.1 years. Gender was divided into 51% male, 47% female, and 2% non-binary.

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