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Apple

Chart: Demand for Apple’s iPhone 6/6+ stays strong

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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January 23, 2015, 6:30 AM ET
Source: 451 Research

Better that one in two (56%) of the respondents in a December survey of early adopter types who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days say they’ll get an iPhone.

“This is the highest level of Apple demand ever recorded in our smart phone survey three months after a major new release,” said Andy Golub of 451 Research.

Samsung is beginning to bounce back, he adds, “after a big decline last quarter due to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launches.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 5.54.48 AM

The survey also found growing demand for jumbo phones. Three-in-five (60%) would-be buyers said they wanted a 5 inch screen or larger — a 7-point jump in phablet demand since September, and double the level 15 months ago.

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 6.14.55 AM

The survey was taken in December. Of the 4,126 Changewave members who responded, 16.1% said they were in the market for a smartphone. The sample is small and hardly representative of the global market, but 451 Research’s ChangeWave surveys have proved in the past to be good early indicators.

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UPDATE: More fuel for the iPhone fire Friday morning from a separate CIRP survey of 500 Americans who activated a new or used phone in last three months of 2014:

The strength of the September 2014 launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus fueled Apple’s dominance in US mobile phone sales this quarter,” said Josh Lowitz, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. “Apple had virtually double the sales of Samsung, and five times that of LG. No other brand accounted for as much as 5% of US sales. The Amazon Fire and Blackberry smartphones registered slight share, which we attribute to random sample fluctuation as much as actual sales.”

“Because of the iPhone launch, Apple increased its share considerably over the 28% in the July-September quarter,” said Mike Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. “For most of the earlier quarter, buyers held off buying Apple phones in anticipation of the launch. Apple also increased its share slightly from the October-December 2013 quarter, when it had 48% of sales. More telling, Samsung saw its share fall from 31% in the October-December 2013 quarter, evidently giving up sales to LG, whose share increased from 8% in the October-December 2013 quarter.”

“By every measure, Apple’s 2014 phone launch was a success,” continued Lowitz. “iPhones drew from loyal Apple customers, with 86% of buyers upgrading from an older iPhone. Samsung and LG saw far lower loyalty rates, with 25% of Samsung owners and 18% of LG owners who activated a phone in the quarter switching to an iPhone.”

Link: Consumer Intelligence Research Partners

Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple AAPL coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.

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