54% of Near-Term Smartphone Purchasers Still Looking to iPhone 4S

changewave dec11 iphone future share
Citing "explosive momentum" for both Apple and Samsung, ChangeWave Research today released the results of a new survey of North American smartphone customers showing that over half of those looking to purchase a smartphone over the next 90 days are planning on buying an iPhone 4S. The 54% share of future buying plans held by Apple as of December was down from 65% in September, but easily marked Apple's best performance when measured two months after a new product release after demand has generally slackened considerably.

The late December survey looked at smart phone demand trends going forward, and finds Apple iPhone demand remains incredibly strong more than two months after the iPhone 4S release.

Among respondents planning to buy a new smart phone in the next 90 days, better than one-in-two (54%; down 11-pts) say they'll get an iPhone.

Apple has never dominated smart phone planned buying to this extent more than two months after a major new release.

Samsung has continued its momentum among Android smartphone purchasers, with its share more than doubling to 13% among those looking to purchase a new phone over the next three months.

In analyzing satisfaction of existing smartphone users, Apple continues to lead with 75% of owners saying they are "very satisfied" with their iPhones. The iPhone has ranked in the 70-80% range for nearly the entire history of the device. Among Apple's competitors, Android manufacturers Samsung, HTC, and Motorola all score in the 45-47% satisfaction range while Research in Motion has continued its slide with a new low of 22% of users registering as very satisfied with their BlackBerry devices.

ChangeWave's sample base focuses on professionals and early-adopter consumers, somewhat skewing its data toward higher-end users likely to have greater awareness of the market. But the firm's long history of consistent data gathering offers a look at patterns measured from this pool of users that frequently serves to set trends for the rest of the market.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 2 Redux

Top 5 Apple Products to Look Forward to in 2025

Friday December 20, 2024 2:22 pm PST by
It's looking like 2025 is going to be an important year for Apple, with the company planning to revamp the iPhone, push further into smart home products, and improve Apple Intelligence. There are tons of new products rumored for 2025, including new iPhones, M4 Macs, a smart home command center, and much more. We've highlighted the top five Apple products that will have the biggest impact in...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...

Top Rated Comments

blackcrayon Avatar
169 months ago
No one can touch Apples great marketing machine.

Yes, great products combined with great marketing and customer satisfaction is definitely a recipe for success.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
surjavarman Avatar
169 months ago
Apple has consistently innovated in the absence of competition. Hell, Apple is the one *creating* the viable competition in dead, stagnant or wide open markets in the first place.

Wrong they always had competition. Their ipod lineup had competition from other mp3 players that were in the market before the ipod. Their computer lineup always had competition from other PC makers well before it. They entered the phone market that had already been established well before the iphone. And the tablet market is just an innovation in a market that already exists: the computer market.


They just innovated a phone to beat the competition and earn money. They innovate a mp3 player to make money. They are innovating to beat the competition. They want to make money. Thats why they are doing it. It's business.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
*LTD* Avatar
169 months ago
Yeah I hope all the samsung loses all their % and the rest of the companies too. Apple should have 100% market share and no competition.


That means we'll be paying $3000 for a ****** black and white phone cause Apple doesn't have to do anything because there is no competition. That would be great for everyone
Apple has consistently innovated in the absence of competition. Hell, Apple is the one *creating* the viable competition in dead, stagnant or wide open markets in the first place.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
voonyx Avatar
169 months ago
True. For most of last year before the 4S arrived, there were reports that the inexpensive 3GS accounted for up to half of iPhone sales.

As for customer loyalty, Verizon recently noted something similar to what AT&T has said before: 80% of new iPhone sales are to previous owners.

So basically the carriers have built up a core iPhone user group that they can depend on to keep buying for themselves and their family.

At the same time, Android phones are selling about twice as fast as iOS phones, so intuitively it seems that new customers are going that way.

Yeah, but Android will eventually peak. It's not like Android is going to have 90% of the market, this time next year. At some point, carriers will have built up a core Android user group as well and Android growth will level off.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
colinc Avatar
169 months ago
iPhone != iPhone 4S

...say they'll get an iPhone.

Apple still sells 2 other iPhone models which sell pretty well. So I think it's fair to say that all 54% aren't looking at the 4S.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
paul4339 Avatar
169 months ago
...
As for customer loyalty, Verizon recently noted something similar to what AT&T has said before: 80% of new iPhone sales are to previous owners.
..
Really? You'd think that most iPhone 4 customers are still locked into plans (assuming that many are on plans)... And so the upgrades are from 3G/3GS customers rolling off of their plans. Looking at the historical numbers, the 3G/3GS number from 2009 aren't that high (compared to the iPhone 4 numbers). Interesting.


.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)