People might not be buying the new $999 iPhone because they're perfectly happy with the iPhone they already have

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People might not be buying the new $999 iPhone because they're perfectly happy with the iPhone they already have

Girl iPhone X

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty

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  • Analyst firm Piper Jaffray surveyed 1,500 iPhone users to find out why they chose not to upgrade to the iPhone X.
  • More than 40% of users said they didn't upgrade because their current iPhone still works well.
  • Price was also a factor - 31% of respondents felt the iPhone X was too expensive.

People might not upgrading to Apple's super-premium iPhone X for a simple reason: they don't need it.

That's according to new research from analyst firm Piper Jaffray, which surveyed 1,500 iPhone users about why they chose not to upgrade to Apple's latest device, which comes with a price starting at $999.

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The survey found that the main reason people weren't upgrading was because their current device works just fine.

Out of all 1,500 respondents, 44% of them said their current iPhone is in good working order and they didn't need an upgraded device. Price also played a role, however - 31% of respondents said the iPhone X was too expensive.

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Piper Jaffray's findings are in line with research recently published by Asymco analyst Horace Dediu, who found that the average lifespan of an Apple device is around four years and three months. While the common thinking is that customers tend to upgrade their devices about every two years, it seems users are more satisfied than ever with their existing Apple devices.

These findings may help explain the reportedly low demand for the iPhone X. Multiple reports in January suggested that Apple had halved its first-quarter production target to 20 million iPhone X devices after demand for the device was lower than it had anticipated.

However, there's some good news for Apple: Over the holiday quarter of 2018, the average selling price of an iPhone shot up to new highs, indicating that the iPhone X is probably finding at least some success.

My colleague Shona Ghosh has a deeper dive on Piper Jaffray's research note and how Apple plans to use its upcoming iPhones to close this interest gap, so head over there for more.

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