Of Verizon customers planning to buy an iPhone in the future, many will skip the iPhone 4 and go straight for the yet-to-be-released iPhone 5.
According to a small survey by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, 74 percent of Verizon subscribers are holding out purchasing an iPhone until the iPhone 5 comes out.
�We believe that many Verizon customers made the decision to wait and purchase the iPhone 5 when it launches instead of buying the mid-cycle iPhone 4,� Munster said with regards to initial sales figures for the Verizon iPhone earlier this year.
The survey was conducted across 216 Minneapolis-based mobile phone users across multiple carriers.
Trends for the past year have shown that Android is up in popularity over the iPhone, despite the latter smartphone�s launch on Verizon. But perhaps as this survey indicates, a good deal of subscribers simply weren�t ready to jump on the iPhone bandwagon until the iPhone 5�s release.
Currently, rumors of the iPhone 5 are all customers have to go on. The phone is purported to feature a speedy A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, a flat metal back and curved glass front, and possibly NFC technology.
Most of the latest iPhone 5 rumors have pegged its launch sometime in September. But according to AllThingsD, we may not see the iPhone 5 until October.
Other results of the Piper Jaffray survey include a high iPhone-user retention rate (94 percent of current iPhone users expect to buy another Apple-branded handset in the future), and split feelings amongst Android users � 47 percent plan to stick with Google�s OS, while 42 percent plan to switch to iOS.
Obviously, 216 mobile phone users is a very small sampling, but if the pattern is consistent across Verizon customers, that could mean big news for Apple. �The iPhone�s market share could more than double throughout the next round of phone purchases,� Munster said.
As reported previously, close to 35 percent of consumers plan to purchase the next iPhone sight unseen, according to a recent poll. As far as Wired readers go, that figure was closer to 20% based on results from a Facebook poll.
(Source: Wired.com)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
An iPhone on the Verizon network is like a Lexus logo on a horse and buggy. They are getting big (too fast) but their current technology is way behind much like their landlines and other media offerings.