Are you impressed by the long lines outside of Apple stores across the country? Well, don’t be, because a shocking 77% of new iPhone 4 sales are just upgrades.
That’s right – the fabled iPhone 4 rush is being fueled primarily by hordes of Apple fanbois clamoring for a questionable upgrade deal pushed by AT&T.
According to a Piper Jaffray survey obtained by BusinessInsider, 77% of iPhone 4 buyers polled in three cities (San Francisco, NYC, and Minneapolis) were upgrading from old iPhones.
In addition, 28% of iPhone 4 buyers owned an iPad, while 39% said they were likely to purchase one within the next year.
And, as expected, at least 65% are currently Mac (OS X) users.
Clearly, the unconditional brand loyalty demonstrated by the Apple faithful borders on religious fanaticism.
Indeed, Apple has already shipped 600,00 pre-orders, with Piper Jaffray predicting sales of 1 million to 1.5 million phones by Saturday, despite reports of poor reception – which the venerable Steve Jobs has characteristically dismissed as a “non-issue.”
“Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas,” Apple explained an official statement.
“If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
