Apple iPhone owners the most loyal smartphone users

A new survey that will be published later today by GfK has found that many smartphone owners aren't loyal to the brand or operating system of their devices. Despite that, it appears that Apple iPhone owners are the most loyal of consumers.

In the global market, a majority of smartphone owners (56 percent) wanted to "keep their options open," when deciding what phone they would buy next, Reuters is reporting.

Only 25 percent of smartphone owners, as a whole, said they would stick to the operating system that powers their current device. 59 percent of iPhone owners, however, said they would stick with Apple devices. Only 21 percent of those with Microsoft powered smartphones said they would stick with that OS, but we suspect that number represents a larger number of Windows Mobile 6 users than those with the newer Windows Phone 7 smartphones. 35 percent of BlackBerry owners said they would stick with a BlackBerry, 28 percent will stay with Android, and just 24 percent of smartphone owners running Symbian plan to stay with that OS.

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