16 percent of Apple iPhone 4 buyers switching to AT&T

“Apple’s new iPhone 4 is proving to be one hell of a brand loyalty generator. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, 77 percent of iPhone 4 sales Thursday were upgrades purchases by existing iPhone owners,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.

MacDailyNews Note: See our earlier article: Analyst: 77 percent of early iPhone 4 sales were to iPhone upgraders

Paczkowski reports, “And Apple is not the sole beneficiary of that loyalty. It’s carrier partners — particularly those with iPhone exclusivity deals — are as well. Though the benefits for them do seem to decline with every new launch. Munster says 16 percent of the new U.S. iPhone buyers he surveyed this year were swtiching carriers to AT&T (T) — down significantly from 28 percent last year.”

That suggests two things:
• Most people who’ve left another carrier specifically to get the iPhone have already done so.
• Apple needs another carrier partner in the states to further maximize iPhone sales.

Paczkowski writes, “The latter point is, of course, obvious.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Note to 16% of iPhone 4 buyers: Our condolences – unless you came from Sprint.