NEW YORK: Demand for the hotly-anticipated fifth generation iPhone has reached "unprecedented levels" compared with earlier versions of Apple's mobile device, a report has revealed.

ChangeWave Research, the insights provider, polled 4,042 adults in North America, some 88% of which were from the US. Having been instructed about the features the "iPhone 5" is expected to offer, 31% of the panel expressed an interest in buying the device.

More specifically, 14% of contributors agreed they were "very likely" to buy, alongside 17% who said they were "somewhat likely".

"Advance demand for the 'iPhone 5' is strikingly higher than we've seen for any previous iPhone model," Paul Carton, vice president of research at ChangeWave, said.

A similar survey discussing buyer intent with regard to the iPhone 4S in October 2011 found 10% of the sample were "very likely" to buy one, rising to 11.5% for the "somewhat likely" group.

Given that the iPhone 4S was described by Carton as the "most successful smartphone in history", the study thus suggested Apple is set to build on its string of hit products.

In further evidence of this, 50% of respondents that were planning to make a category purchase in the next 90 days wanted to obtain an iPhone, a record for a nine-month year old device.

Samsung registered 19% on this metric, an increase of six percentage points versus two months ago, and a lift of 14 percentage points year on year.

A key driver of this trend was that 9% of relevant interviewees anticipated purchasing the latest iteration of its Galaxy handset.

By contrast, Motorola posted just 4% on the same measure, off by two points, while HTC, on 3%, and Research in Motion, on 2%, saw no change. Nokia was up by a point, albeit to a modest 2%.

"Overall smartphone sales should spike to an all-time high this fall, and of course Apple is going to be the number one beneficiary," Carton concluded.

"But besides Apple, and to a lesser degree Samsung, no other manufacturer is likely to benefit from this coming wave of demand."

Data sourced from Fortune; additional content by Warc staff