A new survey of 4,000 North American consumers by ChangeWave Research (http://www.changewaveresearch.com) — a service of 451 Research — has found explosive momentum for Apple and Samsung as the new year gets underway. The late December survey looked at smart phone demand trends going forward, and finds Apple iPhone demand remains incredibly strong more than two months after the iPhone 4S release.

Among respondents planning to buy a new smart phone in the next 90 days, better than one-in-two say they’ll get an iPhone. Apple has never dominated smart phone planned buying to this extent more than two months after a major new release, says ChangeWave Research.

The other company burning up the competition is Samsung, which has registered a huge eight point surge in planned buying since the previous ChangeWave survey. This represents nearly a tripling of consumer interest in Samsung phones since fall 2011.