Many Apple fans love having the latest iPhone in their hands, but not everyone is eligible to upgrade each year. That’s apparently not stopping many consumers, however, as a new survey shows that 45% of cell phone owners are willing to break their contracts and pay a fee just to get their hands on Apple’s latest and greatest.
Over two-thirds of those who said they’d break their contracts to buy Apple’s latest smartphone also responded that they were willing to pay more than $100 in early termination fees, on top of the $200-$400 needed to actually purchase the device.
The survey, conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners and reported by Bloomberg, has some interesting implications regarding brand loyalty, as Apple owners appear much more willing to make sacrifices to get Apple’s latest products.
Also interesting is that the vast majority (71%) of these rule breakers are upgrading from a previous iPhone, while only 18% were switching from a competing smartphone.
Finally, nearly a third of all those surveyed said they switched wireless carriers in order to purchase the iPhone 4S, with AT&T seeing the highest rate of turnover from other carriers.
While I find these results interesting, they’re really not surprising – speaking for myself and many of my Apple-owning friends and contacts, I think this strong desire to keep up with the latest upgrade is fairly typical.
