As you may have heard, the iPhone 4S has been released to the world. But who, exactly, is buying it?
According to a recent survey by consumer electronics site Retrevo: Blackberry users and owners of early-generation iPhones like the 3G and the 3GS, mostly. Per Retrevo's survey of over 1,300 electronics shoppers:
It is a little surprising that iPhone 4 owners are almost even with iPhone 3G and 3Gs owners in their plans to upgrade to the iPhone 4S. Early reviews have painted the iPhone 4S as a more essential update for those with earlier-generation iPhones, though, if the Retrevo survey is to be believed, it appears that those with the iPhone 4 are almost as eager to upgrade. BlackBerry owners, meanwhile, are twice as likely to make the switch as Android owners -- and this survey was done before RIM's massive network problems that affected BlackBerry users worldwide earlier this week.
Retrevo also surveyed its customers' reactions to the new iPhone 4S and found that 47 percent of iPhone owners were disappointed in the new phone. The biggest reason, however, was not the lack of a new design (disappointing 21 percent of respondents), but rather the lack of 4G capability. AnandTech hypothesizes that this has to do with wanting to preserve the thinness of the iPhone and the battery life of the device, both of which Apple might have had to sacrifice to make their iPhone 4G capable.
The iPhone 4S is available now, and as usual, people have been lining up in hordes outside Apple stores around the world. Despite the early sentiment that the iPhone 4S was somehow "disappointing," pre-orders have smashed previous records held by the iPhone 4, and AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have all reported that there will be delays for customers who ordered early.