Crowd Science research claims a growing number of Research In Motion BlackBerry owners are the most likely to abandon RIM in favor of the popular Apple iPhone.
Specifically, BlackBerry owners are reportedly more willing to leave behind their platform when compared to iPhone and Google Android smartphone owners.
"These results show that the restlessness of BlackBerry users with their current brand hasn't just been driven by the allure of the iPhone," said John Martin, Crowd Science CEO, in a statement. "Rather, BlackBerry as a brand just isn't garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems."
The Crowd Science report said 39% of current BlackBerry owners would ditch RIM for the iPhone.
This research shows RIM's continued struggle against increases in competition from both phone manufacturers and software developers. RIM is competing with Apple, Samsung, HTC, and other phone manufacturers entering the smartphone space -- with Google and additional companies offering appealing OS solutions.
Almost 92% of current iPhone owners would stick with Apple over smartphones from other manufacturers. Android users trail slightly but still have a collective 87% loyalty to the open source Linux-based mobile OS.
The tension in the mobile phone market is startling, with almost half of Android users saying they would "definitely or probably would not" recommend an iPhone to consumers. That number is just 15% among iPhone owners who wouldn't recommend an Android-powered phone.
RIM still controls 42% of the smartphone market -- a significant lead over Apple's 25% control -- but RIM has been unable to stop the bleeding.
