How Apple's commitment to supporting old iPhones allowed it to capture a part of the US market once cornered by the inexpensive Android phones
It's not just lavish marketing and the threat of green bubbles—Apple's commitment to supporting old phones has allowed it to capture a part … Tweets: @kaleekreider and @ryanrozbiani Tweets: Kalee Kreider / @kaleekreider : Like cars, smartphones are expensive and durable—and for most people, older models are more than good enough. How great is it that @Apple has figured out a market for re-using tech? @mims reports. https://www.wsj.com/... Ryan Rozbiani / @ryanrozbiani : Apple's commitment to supporting old phones has allowed it to capture a part of the market once cornered by inexpensive Android devices $AAPL https://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The Wall Street Journal traces a slow reversal that began with the moment iPhones overtook Android in US sales back in 2012-era firsts: instead of racing Android on price, Apple kept shipping software updates to phones buyers already owned, so a four-year-old handset stayed usable where budget Android devices aged out. The related coverage shows the same playbook working abroad — selling older iPhone models at lower cost doubled Apple's Q4 revenue in India — proving cheap-old-Apple is a deliberate strategy, not a leftover inventory problem.
Why it matters: durability looked like a revenue risk when analysts worried about new iPhones not warranting upgrades even for iPhone X owners, but Asymco had already flagged the offset — [[a:933466|durable iPhones lower replacement rates yet expand the client base through resales that can be monetized via accessories and services]]. The WSJ piece closes that loop: longevity is how Apple eats the low-end market.
First-order effects
- Budget-conscious US buyers who once defaulted to inexpensive Android phones now have a credible cheap option in secondhand or discounted older iPhones, directly eroding the low-end segment Android vendors relied on for volume.
- Apple gains these users without cutting new-device prices — each resold or discounted old iPhone adds a customer to its installed base at near-zero marginal hardware cost.
Second-order effects
- Android handset makers lose their cheapest acquisition channel in the US and must either discount harder in a shrinking budget tier or concede that segment and compete only at midrange and above.
- Every resold iPhone converts into recurring services and accessories revenue, so the longer support window compounds: the more old devices circulate, the larger the base paying into Apple's ecosystem rather than Google's.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, software-support lifespan becomes the primary competitive weapon in smartphones — mirroring the car market's durable-goods economics — and manufacturers with short update commitments face structural exclusion from the value-conscious segment.
- A large secondhand iPhone supply effectively locks in the installed base against future platform shifts, raising incumbent transition costs for any would-be rival OS trying to reach mainstream US buyers.
The trend: Smartphone competition is shifting from spec-and-price races to software-support lifespans, letting durable-hardware incumbents absorb the budget market through their own secondhand channels.