Survey finds that Apple Stores now account for 25% of US iPhone sales

iPhone 5 at Apple Store

During a summit in San Francisco’s Fort Mason on June 27 of this year, Tim Cook spoke to Apple Retail Store leaders about upcoming changes to the company’s iPhone marketing tactics. He said he was hoping the changes would help their stores start selling more handsets.

Well here we are, nearly 6 months later, and it looks like the changes have done just that. According to a new survey from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the amount of iPhones purchased from Apple stores has increased from 20% to 25% over the past several months…

AllThingsD has the CIRP report:

“The carrier stores are still the dominant place for Americans to get their new cellphones, but two other retailers — Apple and Best Buy — have emerged as significant channels.

Apple, of course, sells only iPhones, but accounts for about 11 percent of retail phone sales, according to a survey from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Best Buy, which sells phones from all major carriers and all the big operating systems, accounts for 13 percent of sales.

When it comes to the iPhone itself, Apple accounts for about a quarter of iPhone sales, with AT&T generating 21 percent and Verizon 18 percent.”

Also interesting: CIRP’s Michael Levin notes that despite its recent financial problems, Best Buy still has significant power in the mobile retail space. Most of this is thanks to the fact that it deals with all major hardware manufacturers, platform-makers and the major carriers.

But despite being outnumbered by Best Buy and other third party retailers, Apple has tried a number of things to improve its in-store iPhone sales. These efforts have included the addition of new features in the Apple Store iPhone app, and the launching of its iPhone trade-in program.

With the holidays coming up, it’ll be interesting to see what these numbers look like in January.