The iPhone 5 has given a significant lift to...

the latest iPhone from the two weeks prior to the launch, he said. The first full week after the launch was also the biggest week for total cellphone accessory sales year to date, he said. The average selling prices for iPhone accessories grew 17 percent compared to the two weeks following the iPhone 4S launch, he also said. That’s “further evidence that iPhone owners are spending more on products for their handsets,” he said. IPhone owners spend 28 percent more on accessories than the average smartphone owner, he said, citing NPD’s recent Mobile Phone Accessory Attachment Study. The trends are “great news for the iPhone accessory market, but indicative as well of the iPhone 5’s early appeal,” said Arnold. Eighty-six percent of iPhone owners buy some type of accessory for their handset, according to the study, making growth in aftermarket products “a decent barometer of device sales vitality,” he said. But he said “the pool of available new iPhone buyers is getting smaller, as the smartphone market matures.” As a result, “significantly expanding share -- either with new customers or converts from other platforms -- will become increasingly difficult with each new phone launch,” he said. There’s been conflicting opinions on how well the iPhone 5 launch has gone, he said. “We'll wait until Apple’s quarterly sales call later this month for the actuals, but if accessory sales are any indication, the iPhone 5 launch went just fine,” he said.