Why Apple is winning the smartphone war while Nokia plays catch-up

Smartphone owners of handset brands including Apple, BlackBerry and HTC are more likely to stick with the same brand when purchasing a new handset, according to new research from YouGov, but why are these devices so special?

Apple owners have the highest level of loyalty with 81% of users expected to buy the brand again. In contrast, LG, a traditional handset brand, comes bottom of the pile with only 10% of users saying that they would buy the brand again.

Remember back in the 90s, and even at the start of the millennium, when you swore you’d never use anything other than a Nokia because of its simplicity and easy usability? Now Nokia is being dubbed out of date.

Traditional mobile phone brands, such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG, do not fair well when it comes to loyalty and according to YouGov, and need to update their features in order to stay in the mobile handset game.

Russell Feldman, research manager in YouGov’s Technology and Telecoms team, says that the traditional phone brands have a battle on two fronts. “Firstly, the number of smartphone owners is growing at a very fast rate and the transitional gold rush to this new technology means traditional handset brands face tough competition from new and exciting brands.

“Secondly, those customers that are currently using traditional handsets are attracted by newer brands and are highly likely to switch to a newer handset brand.”

Meanwhile, BlackBerry has just unveiled its BlackBerry 6 in bid to take on Apple, as the iPhone maker prepares to launch its iPhone 4G on June 7.

Nokia has also unveiled a new handset, the N8, which will arrive as the first Nokia Nseries smartphone device to carry the Symbian 3 operating system. Nokia is doing well in terms of playing catch-up, but the brand has a long way to come before its deemed sexy again – despite it still being the world’s largest manufacturer of handsets.

Nokia’s new phone features a 3.5-inch capacitive display (640 x 360), a multi-touch interface, WLAN (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 3.0, a 12 mega-pixel camera “that rivals those found in compact digital cameras,” and the ability to both record and edit high-definition video content (720p).

All new Nokia handsets also include free Ovi Maps Navigation – an attempt by Nokia to compete with Google’s Map’s service on the iPhone and Android. Nokia also has its own apps store, the Ovi Store, which allows users to enjoy on-demand web TV and news. Could it turn out to be the fierce competitor once more?