Even amid turbulent times, smartphone adoption continues to rise, with a new study revealing that nearly half of those consumers who plan to make a new smartphone purchase in the next three months will buy an iPhone.

A survey of over 4,000 respondents conducted by ChangeWave in the days immediately following the announcement of the iPhone 3GS found that more than 14% plan to purchase an integrated mobile device in the next 90 days — the highest percentage ever recorded by the firm.

Of those who said they plan to make a purchase, a resounding 44% indicated that they plan to buy an iPhone, compared to 23% who said they’ll buy a BlackBerry and 8% who indicated they’ll choose a device made by Palm.

That’s a 14 point jump for Apple since ChangeWave’s last survey in March, which appears to have come directly at the expense of Research in Motion, whose BlackBerry demand fell by the same number of points. Meanwhile, purchase intentions for a device made by Palm doubled following the introduction of the Pre.

For Apple and its exclusive U.S. iPhone service provider AT&T, the news gets even better. Of those consumers who say they’ll be buying an iPhone, more than 66% also said they’ll be new to the platform, having never owned one of Apple’s handset.

The survey also suggests that the surge in demand for iPhones isn’t being driven by Apple’s decision to continue marketing the previous-generation 8G iPhone 3G for just $99. Instead, over 86% of respondents planning to buy an iPhone said they’ll choose one of the new 3GS models.