A man looks at his Apple iPad in front an Apple logo outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai
A man looks at his Apple iPad in front an Apple logo outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai March 16, 2012. Reuters/Aly Song

Apple iPhone has emerged right at the top so far as brand loyalty is concerned, a recent Morgan Stanley research to this effect has revealed. While most other companies have improved brand loyalty figures to show, the survey revealed a staggering 90 per cent willing to stick to the iPhone brand. This marks a healthy improvement over the 73 and 83 per cent that it used to be during December 2011 and 2012 respectively.

The growth curve though is a bit steeper for Samsung, with 77 per cent respondents preferring to stick to the company's smartphone devices. This marks an even healthier improvement over 63 per cent that had resolved to opt for Samsung smartphones in Dec 2012 and 37 per cent in Dec 2011. The chart published at Business Insider further reveals Nokia to occupy the third spot with 58 per cent rating.

A research by simonlycontracts.co.uk too had revealed similar feeling for iPhone owners, reports Forbes. Of the 2,275 iPhone owners polled in the survey, a majority 59 per cent admitted to 'blind loyalty' to the Apple smartphone, a phrase coined to describe those who won't even bother to research other smartphones for their next buy.

When asked to explain, an overwhelming majority or 78 per cent stated they just can't imagine anything else in place of the iPhone while 52 per cent stated they are just too impressed with the iPhone to really bother considering anything else.

However, as the Forbes report points out, such strong brand royalty for the iPhone still isn't proving enough for Apple in its battle against Google's Android. And the biggest bane for Apple is that while it has been busy catering to its fan boys that usually make up the upper crust of the market, Google (as well as Windows) has made rapid inroads in the lower end of the smartphone market.

As such, while the iPhone continues to be the single largest selling brand of smartphone, the fact is Android sells in far bigger numbers. In a recent report published at BGR, IDC has predicted 997.7 million worldwide smartphone shipments in 2014 compared to 184.1 million for the iOS or iPhone.