A new survey from RBC Capital Markets indicates a large amount of iPhone 7 shoppers are in the market for the “Plus-sized” model, and generally are good with the mid-tier 128GB model.
In a group of over 6,000 people, 46 percent of prospective iPhone buyers said they plan to get a Plus — whether the 6s Plus or the 7 Plus, said RBC analyst Amit Daryanani. That’s up from 38 percent of people interested in Plus models a year ago. The increase is likely because of the 7 Plus, Daryanani suggested, owing to its “comparatively richer feature set” — presumably referring to its dual-lens camera allowing for 2x optical zoom and a forthcoming “Portrait” mode that blurs backgrounds.
When it comes to storage, the group that leans towards the mid-tier amount of space has shrunk just a bit, dropping from 55% to 50% of those surveyed, year-over-year. This could be due to Apple’s finally raising the amount of storage on the base models of the iPhone 7 from 16GB to 32GB this year.
Other Apple products and services are showing a nice uptick in interest, with 17% of those surveyed showing interest in the Apple Watch, up from 13% previously, and Apple Pay usage at 24%, up from 16% “post initial launch.”
RBC is holding on to its “Outperform” rating for Apple stock, increasing its price target to $125. It is also increasing its revenue and earnings-per-share estimates for the September quarter from $46.9 billion and $1.66 to $47.3 billion and $1.68. Its December-quarter forecasts are also up, rising from $78 billion and $3.29 to $78.7 billion and $3.34.
