Apple is specifically proud that its flagship devices, the iPhone and the iPad, appeal to both the young and adult, greatly contributing to the tech giant's incredible success to date.

However, a new report from Forbes.com suggested that U.S. kids are fast outgrowing the gadgets that inspired the global mobile device explosion and are gravitating instead toward the competitors like engaging rival South Korea's Samsung.

Cool gizmos for youngsters at the moment bear the brand names that are the fierce rivals of Apple. Forbes pointed to Galaxy smartphones as preferred by teenagers in the United States while the emergence of Microsoft's Surface tablet seems to have captured the imagination of many young minds.

Specifically in the smartphone front, kids have indicated higher inclination to own Samsung's Galaxy smartphones, Forbes said, citing the report from Buzz Marketing Group, which the U.S. publication said specialises in youth marketing.

"Apple has done a great job of embracing Gen X and older Millennials, but I don't think they are connecting with Millennial kids. (Kids) are all about Surface tablets/laptops and Galaxy," Forbes quoted Buzz Marketing's Tina Wells as saying.

What happened to Apple's youth appeal? Apple is a top brand with a premium price tag. In most cases, adults are the ones who can afford to purchase the high-priced iPhone and iPad.

Teens who were able to own the gadgets are usually recipients of hand-me-downs, which for many kids played as not exactly cool.

Samsung, on the other hand, offers more reachable smartphones, especially the handsets below the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3, convincing youths in the process that things that they can actually buy (or their parents are willing to buy for them) and enjoy brand new are by leaps and bounds cooler.

"Teens are telling us Apple is done," Ms Wells said.

This new trend that is apparently working against Apple seems to signal to the tech giant that "everything moves in cycles and you can't rest on your past glory," she added.

"You've got to evolve to maintain relevance. Apple just needs to focus on innovation and teens will come back," the Buzz Marketing executive told Forbes.

Still, Apple can comfort itself on the notion that people who enjoy real buying authority place iPhones and iPad on top of their shopping list, analysts said.

But not too far behind is Samsung, surging mightily and with incredible speed, said Forbes, noting too that barely a year ago Apple's mobile devices were lording it over, seemingly with no viable challenger to face anytime soon.