A recent survey by investment bank Piper Sandler indicates that Apple’s iPhone continues to dominate among U.S. teens, cementing its status as the must-have device for Gen Z.
The 49th semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” survey, which collected input from 6,455 teens with an average age of 16.2 years and an average household income of $65,995, offers a snapshot of U.S. teens’ discretionary spending patterns and evolving preferences across fashion, tech, beauty, and media.
For those unaware, Piper Sandler’s survey is a semi-annual research project running since 2001.
It has surveyed more than 274,273 teens and collected approximately 65 million data points on teen spending over the years, offering valuable insight into the habits of young U.S. consumers.
Diving Deep into Details
According to the 49th survey, 88% of respondents own an Apple iPhone, and 25% intend to upgrade to the upcoming iPhone 17 this year. Further, the teen iPhone ownership numbers has seen a rise of 3% rise since April 2024 reinforcing Apple’s dominance in the teen tech market. In fact, out of every ten participants of the survey, nine of them owned an iPhone.
This survey is in line with another research done by Counterpoint, which found that the share of premium smartphones [wholesale ASP (average selling prices) $600] grew from 15% in 2020 to 25% of the global smartphone market in 2024.
“Piper Sandler is excited to highlight the results of our spring 2025 Taking Stock With Teens survey which offers an inside look at how thousands of U.S. teens are spending their money and its correlation to our economy.
This spring, teens self-reported annual spending at $2,388, which is an increase from both our spring 2024 and fall 2024 surveys,” said Korinne Wolfmeyer, Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler, in a statement.
On the other hand, Instagram continues to lead as the most-used social media platform among U.S. teens, with 87% using it monthly, while TikTok and Snapchat trail behind at 79% and 72%, respectively.
When it comes to daily video watching, Netflix tops the list as the preferred platform among U.S. teens, with 31% choosing it, followed by YouTube at 26% and Hulu at 7%. Additionally, they heavily depend on apps like Uber (76%) for ride-sharing and DoorDash (73%) for food delivery.
