For most folks, the device is a discretionary purchase.

“When we asked people why they were buying the iPhone 4, the vast majority indicated that their decision was driven by desire rather than need. Folks didn’t line up because their old phone was failing them in some way; they lined up because the iPhone tugged at them. Only 26 percent of the people we spoke with said that they needed a new phone. The remaining 74 percent were enticed into a discretionary purchase,” Reiner reports.

“Of respondents, 50 percent said that the iPhone 4’s new features pulled them in,” the analyst added. Of those surveyed, 11 percent said they had wanted to buy an iPhone for some time and were just waiting for the moment when they could buy the last version. Thirteen percent reported that they always buy the latest iPhone when it comes out.”

Of the 76 percent of respondents who already owned an iPhone, most were upgrading it after just 14.7 months–quite a bit faster than typical smartphone replacement cycle of 21 months. (Click on charts below to enlarge.)

How much do I love the Internet?

Muchety-much after seeing this interview that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave plastered all over the Web, in which the former Republican VP candidate gives a local Anchorage television station an interview as a Thanksgiving turkey is being slaughtered right behind her.

Actually, I cannot exactly tell what the hapless workman is doing to the poor turkey in question, because he keeps coming in an out of the frame, carrying the feathered bird by the feet, not sure if he should be doing whatever he is doing as Palin speaks.

But the worker does leave and then return in the course of the interview and then turns on some funnel-shaped device that seems to shake up the bird in an awful way. Twice!

Still, ever the trouper (and sanguine hunter, it seems), Palin obliviously keeps up the turkey patter, having just “pardoned” another turkey earlier.

Such is fowl fate.

Here’s the video (and, after seeing it, tofu might look more palatable on Thursday or you can give to Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey Project, which commented on the Palin interview):