There’s a normal rule about client electronics: The older a tool turns into, the extra rivals seem and costs fall. This was true for televisions, private computer systems and moveable music gamers.

It was presupposed to occur with smartphones. However the iPhone has defied gravity.

On Tuesday, Apple will unveil the seventeenth iteration of its flagship product. Remarkably, at an age by which most client units have misplaced a few of their attraction to customers, Apple has elevated its share of smartphone gross sales over cheaper rivals.

Over the previous 5 years, the iPhone has elevated its share of complete smartphones bought all over the world whereas increasing its share of gross sales in 4 of the world’s largest areas: China, Japan, Europe and India.

In america, the iPhone’s largest market, the system now accounts for greater than 50 p.c of smartphones bought, up from 41 p.c in 2018, in keeping with Counterpoint Analysis, a know-how agency. The positive factors have helped it declare about a fifth of the world’s smartphone gross sales, up from a low of 13 p.c in 2019.

Apple has expanded its smartphone empire because the broader trade has faltered. Over the previous two years, gross sales of Android smartphones have plummeted, however the iPhone has suffered solely modest declines as a result of it’s been successful new prospects. It has accomplished so regardless of being the trade’s priciest system.

Apple has overcome worth sensitivity by making a enterprise that’s paying homage to U.S. automotive gross sales. Like a automotive, iPhones final for years and might be resold to offset the acquisition of a brand new one. Wi-fi suppliers, very like auto sellers, supply reductions and month-to-month cost plans that make it extra reasonably priced to purchase the newest mannequin. And prospects, like brand-loyal automotive consumers, usually tend to purchase one other iPhone than change to Google’s Android working system.

Apple has additionally been fortunate. Two of its greatest challengers, Samsung and Huawei, have stumbled lately. Samsung faltered in 2016 when the batteries in its flagship smartphone spontaneously combusted. Huawei, which was well-liked in China, floundered in 2020 after the Trump administration blocked it from shopping for U.S. know-how.

The iPhone has prevented wobbles with a dependable blueprint: Apple yearly updates the iPhone’s spare however modern design and dependable software program, and brings it to the lots with an operations machine that assembles 200 million flawless iPhones a yr with navy precision.

In america, the iPhone’s recognition is predicted to widen within the years forward. Almost 90 p.c of youngsters personal an iPhone, in keeping with Piper Sandler, an funding financial institution.

For younger folks, iPhones equal inclusion. Many select it over Android as a result of Apple’s messaging service, iMessage, will flip the colour of messages from its default blue to inexperienced if a non-iPhone person is in a messaging group. The stigma related to having inexperienced textual content messages is so pronounced that when it got here time for Dave Storrs’s 14-year-old son to get his first smartphone, {the teenager} advised his father that he needed an iPhone or no cellphone in any respect.

“It’s a standing factor,” stated Mr. Storrs, an Military retiree who lives in El Paso. “They don’t need to be handled in a different way.”

Mr. Storrs, who’s 49, has been subjected to the identical stress. For greater than a decade, he took satisfaction in being what he referred to as an “Android renegade.” He owned a sequence of LG and Motorola telephones, at the same time as his son and different members of the family pressed him to purchase an iPhone. He gave on this yr after his household gave him a $99 pair of Apple’s wi-fi AirPod earbuds.

Every time he needed to make use of the AirPods on his Android cellphone, he needed to manually sync them. The laborious course of impressed him to purchase an iPhone 13, which connects the AirPods instantaneously. After years of utilizing a free Android cellphone, he now pays $11 a month for the iPhone. However he says that he’ll by no means return to Android as a result of he likes that he can put on AirPods and take cellphone calls whereas strolling his Catahoula leopard canine, Teddy.

“It’s simply handy,” he stated.

New consumers like Mr. Storrs illustrate how Apple is gaining prospects. The hole between the 2 main working methods is tilted in Apple’s favor. About 94 p.c of iPhone prospects are possible to purchase one other iPhone, whereas 91 p.c of Android prospects are possible to purchase one other Android, in keeping with Shopper Intelligence Analysis Companions, a know-how analysis agency.

The migration from Android to Apple has accelerated as promotional reductions, financing plans and trade-in presents make increased iPhone costs much less of a barrier. Wi-fi carriers sweetened their presents as they scrambled to achieve or preserve prospects after T-Cellular merged with Dash in 2020. When the mixed firm, the brand new T-Cellular, supplied the iPhone 12 free with a 30-month contract, AT&T countered with an identical deal, stated Cliff Maldonado of BayStreet Analysis, a smartphone analysis agency. It made switching painless.

Across the identical time, Apple and wi-fi carriers started extra aggressively selling month-to-month cost plans. The plans have decreased the price of a brand new iPhone to lower than $40 a month from the $800 to $1,200 that prospects needed to pay upfront. The costs are decrease for individuals who commerce in used units. The previous iPhones, which might fetch as much as $640, have been auctioned to consumers in Asia, who resell them at a markup, Mr. Maldonado stated.

“The cellphone market is just like the housing market,” he stated. “You get fairness, and pay over time.”

In China, the second-most essential nation to Apple’s enterprise, the iPhone has change into the default selection for individuals who need a premium smartphone. Samsung was squeezed out of the market a number of years in the past, and Huawei has been unable to make a cellphone with the newest wi-fi know-how. The dearth of competitors has helped to make the iPhone the nation’s best-selling smartphone in current quarters.

However new challenges threaten Apple’s lead. Final month, Huawei unveiled a brand new premium smartphone, the Mate 60 Professional, its first to characteristic chips able to operating on 5G mobile networks. Beijing additionally directed workers of nationwide authorities companies to not use iPhones for work. As an alternative, they’ve been inspired to make use of home smartphone manufacturers, elevating the chance that nationalist momentum undercuts future iPhone gross sales. The information was first reported by The Wall Road Journal.

Apple didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Apple could possibly offset a dip in China with progress in India. The corporate now claims 5 p.c of gross sales on this planet’s fastest-growing smartphone nation, up from 1 p.c in 2019. Counterpoint Analysis predicts that Apple might double its share to 10 p.c subsequent yr.

The iPhone’s positive factors in India have been years within the making. In 2017, Apple started working with authorities officers to start out manufacturing iPhones regionally, a transfer that has improved affordability by avoiding import tariffs. It has additionally opened shops in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The brand new flagship iPhones that Apple is ready to unveil this week will characteristic speedier processors, extra subtle cameras and titanium slightly than stainless-steel circumstances, in keeping with provide chain analysts. The adjustments are anticipated to come back with a $100 to $200 worth enhance, bringing the price of an iPhone Professional to $1,100 and the Professional Max to $1,200.

However analysts predict that iPhone loyalists will shrug off increased costs. The will increase could be lower than $5 a month for folks on month-to-month plans and even much less for many who commerce in previous iPhones.

“The economic system is doing fairly properly, and all the things prices extra,” stated Michael Levin, a co-founder of Shopper Intelligence Analysis Companions. “Individuals are desensitized to will increase proper now.”