Demand for next iPhone highest ever

ROCKVILLE, Md., July 24 (UPI) -- Advance demand for Apple's next iPhone is at an all-time high, likely to mean huge sales for what's been dubbed the "iPhone 5," a U.S. survey found.

A survey of more than 4,000 North American consumers by ChangeWave Research found 31 percent of respondents said they were likely to buy one when it's released this year, ComputerWorld reported.

And the demand is "strikingly higher than we've seen for any previous iPhone model," Paul Carton, ChangeWave's vice president of research, said.

Fourteen percent of survey respondents reported they were "very likely" to buy one of the new iPhones for themselves or a family member, while 17 percent said felt they were "somewhat likely" to do so.

In its survey questions ChangeWave described the next iPhone in general terms, incorporating expectations of a slightly larger screen and a connection to faster LTE mobile data networks, as well as the near-certainty that it will be introduced running iOS 6, the next version of Apple's operating system.