iPhone 7 News And Rumors: Most Buyers This Year Existing Apple Customers, Goldman Sachs Claims

Though its unveiling is more than five months, the Apple iPhone 7 is already receiving positive vibes from prospective buyers.

Reports quoted senior research analyst at the company Simona Jankowski opining that iPhone 7 will be a big earner for Apple. The iPhone 6S broke sales in just a week after it launched but it remains to be seen if it manages to exceed the 80 million units of iPhone 6 that Apple has sold.

Though, the iPhone 6 and its immediate successor helped Apple post robust sales figures over the last 12 months, a large chunk of Apple users continue to remain iPhone 5s users. The iPhone 7 could help these users opt for the phone-maker's latest offering.

Goldman Sachs predicted that most people likely to buy an iPhone 7 are existing iPhone users. "To us, the most significant aspect of this response is that a third of the replacement demand is coming from current generation (i.e. less than 1-year old phone) users," Jankowski reportedly said.

"This could suggest that the iPhone 7 will drive a shorter replacement cycle, perhaps in response to installment/lease plans such as the iPhone Upgrade Program, which allow a user to upgrade to the newest phone every year while maintaining a flat monthly bill."

The forecast is based on a survey of about 1,000 respondents in US. Nearly half of them said that they plan to buy the iPhone 7 this fall.

Speculation over features of the iPhone 7 appears divided. While analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested this year's iPhone 7 would only be an upgrade of internals and inclusion of dual-camera on the Plus model, others have claimed design changes including a thinner iPhone.

The absence of headphone jack is now nearly a certainty but it still is not known if Apple would release three iPhones this fall, a rumor that continues to do the rounds.