Indeed, the manufacturer's share of the market has receded from 30.6 per cent to 18.3 per cent in a year. Android, on the other hand, has seen sales rise from 10.7 per cent to 45.2 per cent over the same period.
Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, commented: "We are yet to see any real signs of consumers switching between Android and Apple.
"Our data shows that Apple and Android's customers are intensely loyal when choosing their upgrade."
One reason for this, he explained, is the investment consumers make in their device through apps.
Currently, there are more than 200,000 apps available for the Android operating system. BAndroid Market is the online app store run by Google, although apps can be downloaded from elsewhere.
Posted by Simon Jones
