Android owners now more loyal to their OS than iPhone users

The loyalty of Android users to their mobile OS has increased slightly in comparison to the steadfastness of iOS devotees, according to a new piece of research.

The report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), which was spotted by CNET, took in the opinions of some 4,000 US consumers.

It found that customer retention for those activating a new mobile, from July 2013 through to June of this year (in other words, a two-year period) stood at 82 percent for Android, and 78 percent for iOS.

Josh Lowitz, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP, observed: "The dynamic between Apple iOS and Google Android is not well-understood. Even the basic loyalty rate, the measure of how each operating system retains its own users, is not widely known. Conventional wisdom says the Apple 'ecosystem' promotes loyalty, while Android readily gives up users to iOS. Our analysis has a more nuanced view on operating system selection, and indicates Android user loyalty has caught up and even exceeds that of iOS".

As for Windows Phone, Microsoft’s mobile OS managed a retention rate of 19 percent, with BlackBerry slumping to a very poor 4 percent -- although that’s no great surprise.

Lowitz also noted that breaking the periods down further within the window surveyed, Android customer retention increased considerably from 77 percent in the 2013 to 2014 period, to 86 percent in 2014 to 2015 -- whereas with iOS, the retention rate remained about the same, in fact slipping slightly from 79 percent to 78 percent in the second year the report covered.

The study also pointed out that consumers are more likely to switch operating system from iOS to Android when they switch mobile network with their new handset -- but the same isn’t true when shifting from Google’s mobile OS to an iPhone.

Photo credit: Bloomua / Shutterstock

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