Apple’s iPhone Has an 89 Percent Retention Rate

In terms of smartphone stickiness, Apple’s iPhone is the stickiest around.

At a time when consumer retention rates for most smartphone vendors are falling, the iPhone’s is at an all-time high, double that of even its closest competitor.

According to a survey conducted by UBS, Apple has an 89 percent retention rate — far, far greater than its nearest rival HTC, whose retention rate is about 39 percent.

And, unlike many of its incumbent rivals, Apple is not only maintaining that rate, but growing it at their expense.

Research In Motion, for example, has suffered a nauseating decline in retention rates over the past 18 months, tumbling from 62 percent to 33 percent. The situation at Nokia is depressingly similar. And, in UBS’s estimation, the customers fleeing those two companies are largely headed to Apple and, to a lesser extent, Samsung and HTC. Which means Apple’s retention rate might actually be higher than that 89 percent figure mentioned earlier.

“Of our respondents who are current Apple subscribers, only six percent indicated that they intended to move to a different OEM, with four percent saying they were undecided,” says UBS. “This suggests that the retention rate for Apple could end up being as high as 93 percent.”

A 93 percent retention rate. Little wonder Apple today is the world’s largest smartphone vendor.