Piper Jaffray recently wrapped up some research on smartphone adoption, revealing that 67% of BlackBerry owners were going to switch to an iPhone next, with only 26% sticking with RIM. By contrast, 94% of iPhone owners were going to get an Apple handset again, while 42% of Android owners would be continuing with the OS for their next phone. None of that is too surprising considering other data pointing to the popularity of the looming iPhone 5. Now, keep in mind that the sample size for this study was relatively small (216), and concentrated on smartphone owners in Minneapolis, so it hardly proves a global trend. Still, the sentiment is hard to ignore in the U.S., especially when previous studies on smartphone OS loyalty have turned up similar results. Needless to say, BlackBerry has some stiff competition in keeping their users with tempting Android and iOS alternatives available.
Despite Android flagging behind iOS loyalty, Google’s mobile OS currently owns a healthy chunk of market share, and the wealth of hardware options may keep them up there. Sill, Apple is making a ton of money selling upper-end handsets, and I think both iOS and Android will be winners in the long run. For RIM’s sake, here’s hoping the next breed of OS 7 devices changes popular opinion on BlackBerry. Do you guys think this data is accurate? Do you plan on sticking with your current smartphone OS for your next purchase?
[via BusinessInsider]