Study shows iPhone 4S customers' buying habits
If you recently bought an iPhone 4S, chances are you sold an older model iPhone to fund that purchase. You also probably stayed on your current carrier and purchased the lower capacity models.
These trends are gleaned from a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners survey conducted in October, November and December of 2011. According to CIRP, 21 percent of iPhone 4S owners bought the 64 GB iPhone 4S, which means most 4S owners (79 percent) opted for the lower capacity.
CIRP also found that 36 percent of 4S owners migrated from another platform, which is up from the 18 percent reported in earlier surveys. This increase is impressive and shows the 4S is gaining traction among Android, BlackBerry or Palm users. It also shows that most customers (64 percent) stick with the iPhone once they make the switch.
It's not just customers who benefit from the iPhone. The CIRP survey suggests the iPhone is good for carriers that carry the handset, bad for those that don't. The results show that AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have maintained their iPhone user base and customers are not switching among the big three just to get the iPhone. New customers come at the expense of T-Mobile and other smaller carriers like US Cellular, which don't carry the iPhone.
Though I wasn't one of the 365 people who participated in the questionnaire, it describes me perfectly. I'm a 4S owner who sold my iPhone 4 on Craigslist. I stayed with my current carrier Verizon Wireless and purchased the lower capacity 16 GB model. How about you, do you fit into this survey?
