A Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst is out with a report today presenting the results of a recent survey of almost 91,000 smartphone users from around the world. The firm surveyed those users between March and September, and among other things it found upgrade interest among iPhone users has gone up precipitously in recent months — such that BofA has reaffirmed its ‘buy’ rating on shares of Apple stock, on the back of the firm’s prediction that upgrades are going to help Apple sales especially pop next year.
Among other findings from the note by analyst Wamsi Mohan — per a CNBC report, some 33 percent of survey responders said they plan to upgrade to a new iPhone for their next purchase, compared to 15 percent for Samsung. In all, 70 percent of respondents basically identified themselves as Apple loyalists, saying the next phone they buy will remain an iPhone.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt’s Apple 3.0 dives deeper into the BofA report, noting that interest in iPhone upgrades especially peaked in September after the unveiling of the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR. Fun sidenote: BofA garnered an average of 490 responses per day for its survey.