Edible Apple

Apple will release its earnings for its third fiscal quarter of 2012 tomorrow, and per usual, analysts are scrambling to update their projections for Apple’s earnings and sales figures for the quarter.

While Apple has an impressively consistent track record when it comes to beating Wall Street earnings estimates, some analysts recently lowered their projections for Apple’s earnings this past quarter citing weaker than expected iPhone demand.

I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how iPhone sales performed over the past 3 months, but one relevant talking point is the reportedly unprecedented demand for the iPhone 5. Put differently, with folks eagerly awaiting the iPhone 5, what with its reportedly larger 4-inch screen and support for 4G LTE, iPhone 4S sales may be a bit lukewarm

In a survey conducted by ChangeWave and released on Monday, the research firm found that a record number of respondents are likely to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone.

“Advance demand for the ‘iPhone 5’ is strikingly higher than we’ve seen for any previous iPhone model,” Changewave VP of Research Dr. Paul Carton said.

“Overall smartphone sales should spike to an all-time high this fall, and of course Apple is going to be the number one beneficiary. But besides Apple, and to a lesser degree Samsung, no other manufacturer is likely to benefit from this coming wave of demand.”

But Apple isn’t the only smartphone manufacturer with bright prospects ahead.

Changwave also found that consumers are also interested in purchasing Samsung models in the weeks ahead, with 19% of respondents indicating that they plan on buying a Samsung device in the next 90 days. Notably, Samsung recently released the Galaxy S III which has reportedly moved over 10 million units in less than two months.

AppleInsider adds that “interest in Motorola devices was down two percentage points to 4 percent, HTC was unchanged at 3 percent, and RIM remains stuck at its all-time low of 2 percent.”