Statistically, it's a move you'll regret:
Survey: Only one in four smartphone owners is loyal to his or her brand
Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt
November 29, 2010 7:40 AM
Even iPhone users expressed a willingness to switch, despite high satisfaction ratings
Source: GfK
Three out of four smartphone owners surveyed by a German marketing company say they may switch to another operating system when they buy their next phone.
The only smartphone that elicited any significant loyalty was the iPhone, with 59% of respondents saying they were sticking with Apple (AAPL). That's considerably lower than the 73% in another survey who said they were "very satisfied" with their iPhone.
"Loyalty with a handset is a lot more complicated these days in that people buy into experiences at the high-end level," Ryan Garner, an analyst with GfK, 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."
Owners of smartphones running Microsoft (MSFT) software were the least loyal in GfK's survey, with only 21% planning to stick with their phones, followed by Nokia's (NOK) Symbian at 24%, Google's (GOOG) Android at 28% and Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry at 35%.
The survey was conducted in October and November among 2,653 mobile phone users in Brazil, Germany, Spain, Britain, the U.S. and China.
GfK also found that 37% of ordinary cellphone owners surveyed planned to upgrade to a smartphone when they bought their next phone.
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
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