The numbers are in and Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster claims Apple sold 750,000 iPhone 3G S handsets over the launch weekend.
According to Macworld UK, Munster’s estimate that Apple sold about 750,000 iPhones over the three-day weekend, is 50% more than his initial prediction (500,000) but 25% less than the 1 million iPhone 3Gs Apple sold on launch last July.
The company sold one million units of the original iPhone were sold in the 74 days after it launched in the U.S.
Fortune reports that Munster and his colleagues surveyed 256 customers at Apple’s New York and Minneapolis stores and found that 28% were switching carriers to AT&T, down from 38% last year and 52% in 2007.
The analysts discovered that 56% were upgrading from an old iPhone, up from 38% last year. “We believe this shows Apple is developing brand loyalty not enjoyed by other mobile phone makers,” Munster writes.
Per the survey, 43% bought the high-end 32GB iPhone 3G S, compared to 66% who bought the high-capacity 16GB model last year and the 95% who opted for 8GB over the 4GB when the iPhone first went on sale.
Of the customers buying their first iPhone, 12% were switching from a Research in Motion BlackBerry, up from 6% during the launch of the iPhone 3G. Munster said this: “may indicate the company is making headway among business users slowly adopting the iPhone platform for corporate use.”