Demand for iPhone Highest Ever, Market Research Firm Says

The iPhone 6 launch doubled Apple’s sales in the December quarter of 2014, says Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, based on a survey they conducted at the end of last year. Additionally, a separate report says the demand for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus has never been higher. The reports come four days ahead of the anticipated quarterly earnings reports.

Looking back to the past calendar quarter, CIRP says that Apple grabbed half of US smartphone sales, followed by Samsung, which took about 26%, down from 31% in 2013. LG is on the rise, with 11%.

Cirp iphone sales q4 2014

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.”

Apple’s sales share is up 2% from the same period in 2013, when it took roughly 48% of all smartphone sales in the country. The market research firm concludes that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch was a success, despite the majority of sales coming from upgrades (86%).

Iphone demand changewave

The second survey, conducted by ChangeWave (via Fortune) in December, revealed that 56% of US-based smartphone buyers plan to purchase an iPhone in the next 90 days, marking the highest level of demand Apple has ever recorded.

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