Which phone is at the top of Christmas wish lists? The answer is probably not surprising. According to NM Incite, the iPhone 4S is the most buzzed-about phone in the last six months.
NM Insight (a Nielsen/McKinsey company) said it found the "iPhone 4S has been the most frequently mentioned smartphone in terms of online buzz on blogs, message boards/groups, Twitter and Facebook, and online news posts, capturing 40 percent of online buzz about smartphones from July through December 2011."
When combined with older versions of the iPhone, Apple's smartphone captured nearly two-thirds of the chatter, Nielsen said. Not to be outdone, however, several high-profile Android devices—like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Droid Bionic, and HTC Evo series—attracted "substantial buzz," Nielsen said.
BlackBerry devices had about 10 percent of buzz, with the BlackBerry Bold garnering the most mentions.
On the iPhone, though, AT&T said it expects to see record smartphone sales in the fourth quarter, due in part to strong sales of the iPhone 4S. Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White noted earlier this week that AT&T's smartphone sales already totaled 6 million in the first two months of the quarter, and they're nearing 6.1 million, the previous record. The carrier activated one million iPhone 4S's in the first five days the phone was available, and it said that "iPhone 4S sales remain strong."
Meanwhile, expectations for the number of iPhones Apple will sell in the holiday quarter are high. AppleInsider said UBS analyst Maynard Um has raised his prediction to 30 million from an earlier estimate of 28 million.
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu has also bumped up his sales projection. Based on supply chain checks, he said he expects Apple to sell 28 million iPhones in the third quarter. Last week, JP Morgan also raised its forecast to 28 million iPhones for the quarter, up from the previous prediction of 25.3 million.
For more on the iPhone, see PCMag's review of the iPhone 4S and the slideshow below.