Three days ago, sales of one of the main hits of this season — the iPhone 4S smartphones — started in seven countries — the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Australia. The number of devices sold over the first weekend has not yet been reported, but more than 1 million devices were sold in the first 24 hours – the iPhone 4S became the fastest-selling device in Apple‘s history.
Analysts from Piper Jaffray interviewed customers who lined up in the App Store. It turned out that the iPhone 4S is the most popular among the owners of the previous, fourth, model. A total of 550 people were interviewed, 73% of whom own an iPhone 4 and are ready to exchange it for a new model. Last year there were 4% more such people (77%), in 2009 – 56%, and in 2008 — only 38%.
“Apple has managed to cultivate brand loyalty among users of its products. There is no such thing on the Android platform. This weekend Apple will be able to sell from two to two and a half million iPhone 4S,” said Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray.
Moreover, analyst Carl Howe from Yankee Group predicted 4 million sales in the first weekend. The least optimistic are experts from Bloomberg, who expect sales for this period at the level of 1.7 million.
94% of Piper Jaffray respondents said that over the next few years they do not plan to “switch” to smartphones from other manufacturers; while only 47% of Android smartphone users are ready to remain faithful to their devices.
The 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S is in the greatest demand so far; the most expensive 64-gigabyte model has become the least popular.