30 percent of iPhone 4S owners paid the iPhone 4 early termination fee

By Mike Flacy November 30, 2011

iphone-4-vs-4s — Image used with permission by copyright holder

According to a survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the research firm found that 30 percent of iPhone 4S owners upgraded from the iPhone 4. Since the iPhone 4 was released during June 2010, anyone upgrading to the iPhone 4S approximately 16 months later would be subject to the early termination fee issued by wireless service providers like Verizon and AT&T. For instance, the early termination fee on smartphones for AT&T is set at $325 per line minus $10 for each month of service. Anyone upgrading to the iPhone 4S that previously purchased an iPhone 4 at launch would have paid around $175 to get their hands on the new model. Verizon customers likely paid around $270 to upgrade since the CDMA version of the iPhone 4 was released during February 2011.

The survey also found that more than 40 percent of iPhone 4S purchases were made online through Apple, wireless carrier sites or retail establishments like Best Buy. Of those purchases, one fourth were made through Apple stores and the official Apple site while the remainder were made through the other channels. The 64GB version of the iPhone 4S accounts for approximately 23 percent of all sales. Seventy-one percent of all iPhone 4S purchases were upgrades from previous versions of the iPhone including the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. In addition, 18 percent of new purchases were people switching from other smartphones.

Approximately 37 percent of the respondents switched carriers to purchase the iPhone 4S. Forty-nine percent of the respondents purchased an AT&T phone, 34 percent purchased a Verizon phone and 17 percent picked up the Sprint version. The research firm also found that females prefer the white version of the iPhone 4S over the black model and the purchase of an iPhone leads to interest in other Apple products like the Macbook, iPad and Apple TV.

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