“Based on what we heard from six million social conversations, the only conclusion we can logically reach is that the launch of the iPhone5 will be epic.” — Vincent Schiavone, co-founder and CEO of ListenLogic

What wouldn’t you do for the iPhone 5? According to a recent ListenLogic study, customers are willing to sacrifice a lot, including clothes, cars and vacations, to make sure they can afford the new smartphone. ListenLogic used its own big-data stream platform (that claims to offer “performance well beyond Hadoop”) to analyze six million social media conversations concerning consumer intent to purchase the forthcoming iPhone 5. To determine who the smartphone customers are, what they are buying and why they are buying, ListenLogic collected social data from Facebook and Twitter as well as comments on news sites and forums, micro-blogs and online media, including video.

The iPhone 5 “epic-ness” was deduced from key results. Findings suggest that it is not so much the new features that are driving interest, but brand loyalty – proud Apple fans must have the next iPhone. The 17 percent who mentioned iPhone 5 features they were looking forward to noted bigger screen size (5 percent overall), longer battery life (7 percent overall) and enhanced speed (5 percent overall) were important. Still, according to ListenLogic, “there are no specific features driving market demand,” suggesting appeal is the major pull. Results also showed that there is more customer excitement for the iPhone 5 than there was for the iPhone 4S and Apple user recommendations have been influential to new potential iPhone customers.

While just last year, 58 percent of the pertinent online conversations indicated intent to purchase, today 73 percent discuss buying. Critics believed current iPhone service contracts might be a barrier to purchase, but the study reveals that 82 percent of those intending to buy are current iPhone owners (willing to incur upgrade and contract break fees). Researchers noted: “The power of the Apple brand was seen clearly in the 23 percent of potential purchasers who said they would postpone buying clothes, cars, even booking vacations to make sure they can afford to purchase an iPhone 5.”

Schiavone concludes: “This willingness to sacrifice to buy Apple products may be the single biggest measure of brand loyalty and the greatest source of anxiety for the competition. The current data show that only Apple can unseat Apple.”