A new survey conducted by ChangeWave has revealed that the sale of Apple (News - Alert) iPhones is unaffected by the downturn in the U.S. economy even though other IT products are experiencing a grim sale.

 

In the meantime, the Apple iPhone (News - Alert) is also beginning to gain traction in the corporate marketplace even as RIM maintains a big market share lead.

 

ChangeWave surveys its members on a range of business and investment research topics, collects feedback from them electronically, and converts the information into quantitative and qualitative reports.

 

"The brief period of stabilization picked up in our May survey has given way to another major leg downward," said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave and editor of ChangeWave Investing. "You have to go way back to the middle of the last recession (August 2001) to find a ChangeWave survey projecting this big of an IT spending downturn."

 

ChangeWave states that the survey was conducted during August 11-21 this year, and a total of 1,947 respondents who are involved in an organization’s IT spending participated.

 

According to officials, the survey first asked respondents if their third Quarter IT spending was on track to date, and the results were the worst that was seen in a ChangeWave survey. Three out of ten (30 percent) say they've spent "Less than Planned" -- 3-points worse than the previous May survey. Just 12 percent say they've spent "more than planned."

 

A quarter of the respondents also say that the looming presidential election is also having an impact on their company's IT spending decisions. 35 percent see or expect high prices to affect their company’s spending on IT. When respondents were queried on their thought if IT spending would ever pick up in their company, a robust 39 percent said not until at least the second Quarter of 2009 or later.

 

In the same survey, ChangeWave also focused on corporate smartphone buying, and here Research In Motion continues to overshadow its two main competitors in terms of planned fourth Quarter purchases -- but note that it's down a full 3-points from the record high registered in May. The company states that Research In Motion is current the leader for corporate smartphones.

 

Apple received another boost from the respondents when 19 percent of them admitted that they are more likely to buy an Apple product in the future and only 1 percent replied in the negative.