Just how much is Apple eating the competition’s lunch when it comes to smartphones? In a study released by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners and reported by CNET, a third of iPhone 4S buyers said they previously had Android, BlackBerry or Palm devices.
Half of the 36 percent of iPhone converts said they left the BlackBerry behind, 39 percent put the Android down and 10 percent the Palm.
Even those surveyed who had iPhones remain loyal to the brand: 43` percent upgraded from an older model, and 42 percent of all iPhone users broke an existing contract to upgrade, CIRP found.
IPhone’s success, however, can be a drag on the companies trying to get you to get one because the device is so heavily subsidized, which cuts into profits in the short term.
Verizon, for example, pays around $600 for an iPhone from Apple but sells it for $200, hoping to eventually make up the difference â€" and a profit â€" off two years of service fees, according to an AP report on Verizon’s latest quarterly financial results, which didn’t please Wall Street. Verizon, new to iPhone sales, sold 4.3 million of them, but warned that the hefty sales “would hold back earnings.â€
Apple is expected to release its earnings later today, and we’ll see how many iPhones it has sold. Some analysts think the company sold at least 30 million in the last three months of 2011.
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