Survey: iPhone consumer loyalty tops Android

Smartphone owners exhibit little loyalty to their current mobile operating system, with just 25 percent of consumers planning to stick with their current platform when they next upgrade their phone, according to a global survey conducted by market research firm GfK. Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS fared best, with 59 percent of respondents planning to remain loyal, followed in descending order by Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry (35 percent), Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android (28 percent), Symbian (24 percent) and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone (21 percent).

"Loyalty with a handset is a lot more complicated these days in that people buy into experiences at the high-end level," GfK lead analyst Ryan Garner told Reuters. "If a phone doesn't do what it says it will do or what the owner hopes it will do, the maker will lose loyalty." GfK adds that 37 percent of respondents plan to upgrade to a smartphone with their next handset purchase.

For more:
- read this Reuters article

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