I have a much simpler explanation for this data. More people search about all aspects of their iPhone ahead of Apple releases -- whether it is slow, where to buy a new one, how to sell their old one, etc. This hypothesis is supported by the same data source (Google Trends data).
This has more to do with Apple's marketing strategy (hush-hush until a big media launch day) vs Samsung's (slow drip releases across various phone service providers). And also Apple's brand equity -- that it has more loyal followers eagerly anticipating new releases, vs Android users who tend to be commodity/pragmatic buyers who basically only research phones when their contracts are expiring.
This has more to do with Apple's marketing strategy (hush-hush until a big media launch day) vs Samsung's (slow drip releases across various phone service providers). And also Apple's brand equity -- that it has more loyal followers eagerly anticipating new releases, vs Android users who tend to be commodity/pragmatic buyers who basically only research phones when their contracts are expiring.
I dug into this a little more on my blog:
http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2014/07/27/nytimes-bigdata