Who’s More Loyal — Android Or Apple Users?

Operating systems can inspire loyalty, and in the dual between Apple and Android, it seems Android wins out.

That’s according to findings released Tuesday (Aug. 11) by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which surveyed 4,000 device users across the United States. Over nearly two years, between July 2013 and June 2015, 82 percent of Android owners kept that operating system when they went and chose a new device. That edges, albeit slightly, Apple’s 78 percent rate. The other mobile systems trailed far behind, with Microsoft at 19 percent with its Windows system and BlackBerry, once a strong player in the market, managing to hold on to a paltry 4 percent of users.

Though the loyalty rates are strong across both Apple and Android, the CIRP researchers found no clear evidence as to just why those rates should be so high. “The dynamic between Apple iOS and Google Android is not well-understood,” Josh Lowitz, CIRP cofounder, said in the release detailing the study. “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.”

And, as CNET noted on Tuesday, there is at least some lure for Apple users to move beyond the famed ecosystem. CIRP’s data showed 20 percent of previous iOS owners decided to pick up an Android device during the two-year study. But only 16 percent of Android users made the leap to iOS, which implies at least some leverage to Android’s market share against the Apple platform.

CIRP also researched just why switching carriers might impact operating system loyalty. Among the findings: 79 percent of previous Android users allied themselves with the platform if they switched to a new carrier. But conversely just over half of iOS users would continue on with Apple’s platform if they found a new service provider.

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