April Taylor Tech 01.25.2015 07:Jan AM EST

iPhones on the roll, accounting for 50% of U.S. phone activations in 4Q

Apple's iPhones accounted for half of U.S. phone activations in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

The latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus made their debut back in September 2014 and saw the greatest launch weekend sales in the company's history, breaking all previous sales records. The handsets have since seen strong demand across the world, and it seems that iPhones have been among consumer's favorite smartphones.

Based on data collected by CIRP, as much as half of all U.S. phone activations in the fourth quarter were for iPhones, significantly outperforming rivals such as Samsung, HTC, and LG. With 50 percent of all phone activations from Apple, the reports notes that the company has seen a great improvement in iPhones performance compared to the third quarter.

"The strength of the September 2014 launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus fueled Apple's dominance in US mobile sales this quarter," noted CIRP partner and co-founder John Lowitz. "Apple had virtually double the sales of Samsung, and five times that of LG. No other brand accounted for as much as 5% of US sales. The Amazon Fire and BlackBerry smartphones registered slight share, which we attribute to random sample fluctuation as much as actual sales."

The report further points out that Apple's 2014 iPhone launch was a great success on all fronts. Loyal Apple fanboys again proved to be leading the charge, as 86 percent of buyers upgraded from an older iPhone.

"Samsung and LG saw far lower loyalty rates, with 25% of Samsung owners and 18% of LG owners who activated a phone in the quarter switching to an iPhone."

In order to collect this data, between Dec. 27 and Jan. 5 CIRP surveyed a sample of 500 U.S. mobile users who activated a new or used phone between October and December 2014.

The same study reveals that Samsung accounted for 26 percent of the handsets sold last quarter, LG made up 11 percent, Motorola contributed 4 percent, while HTC and Nokia accounted for 2 percent each.

It's worth pointing out that surveying such a small sample may not provide an accurate depiction, as the results could be significantly different if more people were included in the study, or if it covered more regions. Nevertheless, this limited research confirms strong demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as strong loyalty from Apple fans.