Forget the $999 iPhone — a recent survey says most iPhone X buyers want the $1149 model (AAPL)

Tim Cook

There's a surprising number of people who are willing to pay more for an smartphone than ever before.

Over half of people surveyed who planned to buy Apple's new iPhone X want to buy the most expensive version with the maximum amount of storage space, according to new research from RBC Capital Markets on Monday.

The entry-level iPhone X costs $999 but it only comes with 64GB of storage space. To upgrade to 256GB of storage space costs an extra $150, but there's no shortage of customers willing to pay up.

"Despite Apple increasing the minimum storage in iPhones, there has been a shift in consumer preference towards higher storage models. In case of iPhone X, for the first time, a majority of users have indicated preference for the highest storage models with over 57% opting for the 256GB model. This skew is stronger than iPhone 8 where 45% opted for 256GB model," RBC analyst Amit Daryanani wrote in a note to clients on Sunday.

The iPhone X is also seeing strong demand compared to iPhone 8 models, the researchers found, with 43% of prospective iPhone customers desiring the X over other models.

"We think that this indicates that a portion of iPhone X buyers want to buy the 'best' iPhone available despite significantly higher pricing than any other iPhone in the past," Daryanani continued. This suggests the average price of an iPhone could rise a lot in the coming months.

The most attractive feature on the new iPhone X is wireless charging, according to the survey, a feature that is also found on the new iPhone 8 models. iPhone X features