Smartphone users not as loyal as they were

Smartphone users are not as loyal as they used to be, meaning manufacturers have to continue to fight hard to keep their custom.

So claims research by GfK, which found that 56 per cent of smartphone owners in key global markets were keeping their options open about which phone they would buy next, with only Apple commanding a significant degree of loyalty.

With features such as Wi-Fi, GPS and high-resolution cameras now commonplace, owners of internet-enabled phones are increasingly concerned with the ease of accessing attractive services to enhance their devices, often through app stores.

"Loyalty with a handset is a lot more complicated these days in that people buy into experiences at the high-end level," Ryan Garner, the lead analyst on the survey, 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."

The survey found that just 25 per cent of smartphone owners planned to stay loyal to the operating system running their phone, with loyalty highest among Apple users at 59 per cent, and lowest for Microsoft's phone software, at 21 per cent.

Of users of RIM's BlackBerrys, 35 per cent said they would stay loyal. The figure was 28 per cent for users of phones running Google's Android software, and 24 per cent for users of Nokia Symbian phones.

Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, is revamping its software strategy under new Chief Executive Stephen Elop, and is due to release two new platforms next year.

GfK conducted the survey of more than 2,500 mobile phone users in Brazil, Germany, Spain, Britain, the US and China online during October and November.