The iPhone is hands down 'the dominant device brand among teens' (AAPL)

pulse

April 10, 2018 5:46 PM

Apple should pivot to services and forget about selling phones. 'Wait,' says Piper Jaffray's Michael Olson. See what he found.

Teens are buying more iPhones each time Piper Jaffray Senior Analyst Michael Olson runs his periodic survey.
82% of teens surveyed have the iPhone.
Olson, unlike many analysts, sees the iPhone as somewhat of a strength for

Teens continue to love the Apple iPhone. That's the big takeaway of Piper Jaffray's semi-annual "Taking Stock With Teens" survey.

The survey of roughly 6,000 teens, with an average age of 16.4 years, found 82% of respondents own an iPhone, making for the "highest percentage we have seen in our survey (up from 78% in Fall-17)," according to senior analyst Michael Olson.

"Overall, we view the survey data as a sign that Apple's place as the dominant device brand among teens remains intact."

Olson, who has a $200 price target on Apple, about 16% above current levels, believes teens will continue to choose the iPhone over its smartphone peers.

"We believe iPhone may have further room to grow with 84% of teens anticipating their next phone purchase to be an iPhone," he said.

And while some on Wall Street think Apple should pivot away from the iPhone and towards services in order to drive long-term growth, Olson isn't so sure.

He says, "An expanded array of next gen iPhones should drive ongoing upgrades well Into FY19."

Apple is up almost 2% Tuesday, and little changed on the year.