Millions of people are still using old iPhones ahead of the iPhone 8 launch

Apple is expected to unveil a new version of the iPhone on Tuesday during its first ever event at its new headquarters - fondly nicknamed "The Spaceship." Rumors are circulating about the cost, size, and name of the new phone, but even without those details analysts are trying to figure out how large the demand for the new phone will be.

One possible clue is the number of people using old iPhone models. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, of the 141 million iPhones in use in the U.S at the start of July, 48 million of them were last year's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. As we can see in this chart from Statista, that leaves 93 million people with phones that could be at least two years old. Not all iPhone 6 devices in use were bought two years ago (Apple still sells them for a discount) - but with this large of a base using older models, it's clear that a solid amount of people will be ready for an upgrade.

This is good news for Apple. Phone sales have slowed over the past few months, which according to Tim Cook, is because of anticipation for the new phone. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the original iPhone release, and to get back some of that original energy, Apple needs to release a groundbreaking device.

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Anaele Pelisson/Business Insider

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