Apple iPhone 5 Demand Looks Strong

Apple iPhone 5 Vs. Samsung Galaxy S III: What We Know

Apple's iPhone sales have lagged lately, a trend research firms like Gartner and IDC attribute to consumers postponing purchases while they wait for the iPhone 5. But the wait to buy is about to end.

While the Samsung Galaxy S III appears to be outselling the Apple iPhone 4S, Apple next week is holding a press conference to introduce what's widely expect to be the iPhone 5. And early signs point to strong sales.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is predicting that Apple could sell from 6 million to 10 million iPhone 5s just in the last week of September, assuming the devices are available starting on Friday, September 21, as predicted.

A survey released on Wednesday, conducted August 21-30 by online shopping website PriceGrabber.com, suggests 21% of online shoppers plan to purchase the iPhone 5. This is based on responses from 1,740 online shoppers in the U.S., the majority of whom already have a relationship with Apple: About 35% of respondents said they own an iPhone and over 57% said they currently own an Apple product.

[ Everybody is reading tea leaves when it comes to the next iPhone. Read Apple iPhone 5 Hints Continue. ]

Within the subset of those who plan to buy the iPhone 5, 16% said they will do so during its first week of release and 36% said they plan to acquire one by the end of 2012.

Half of the respondents in the iPhone buying group identified themselves as current iPhone owners while 34% said they've been waiting to switch to the iPhone from another brand and want to have the latest version. It's this subset of people that Google, Microsoft, and RIM should be worried about.

Last month, comScore said that 110 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the quarter that ended in June, a 4% increase from the previous quarter. During this period, Apple's share of the U.S. smartphone market reached 32.4%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points. Google's share of the U.S. smartphone market, via Android, reached 51.6%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points.

Over the same period, RIM saw its U.S. smartphone market share slip to 10.7%, a decline of 1.6 percentage points. Microsoft's U.S. smartphone market share declined slightly in second quarter to 3.8%, a drop of 0.1 percentage points.