ChangeWave Research is a group that has been doing independent research and reports for the past 9 years. Today they released their latest report that details a survey of 4,163 consumers aiming to get a fresh look at smart phone demand trends as well as OS preference. The key comparison here is Apple vs Android, or iOS vs Android but they do mention the decline of RIM a few times to keep things even.

This first chart takes us back to January, 2008 and shows the trend for smartphones based on OS preference going forward and future purchases. Back then it shows RIM being in a pretty sweet spot but it is all downhill from there. Take note around September 2009 when Android takes a huge jump and has since stayed at that level. It appears Android is slowly becoming the preferred mobile OS but it’s still a tight race with Apple. Adding in the latest survey reports as of June, 2011. Users planning to buy a smartphone favor Apple currently sitting at 46% with Android at 32% although from looking at the chart things are always changing.

While Apple has stayed at similar levels throughout those few years you can clearly see when Android made its huge jump is really where Blackberry and RIM started to really dive. Interesting results to say the least. Next up they have a few numbers regarding satisfaction with the OS. This is an area where Android could potentially do extremely well in my opinion, but with so many different phones and custom user interfaces the platform and experience as a whole probably effects the numbers and poll results. One of Androids biggest upsides is also a downside because you get great products and tons of options, but there is also those low quality phones that never get updated we all just forget about.

This suggests that when users were asked if they are satisfied with their mobile OS around 70% of iOS users responded saying “very satisfied” compared to just half (50%) of Android users. This could be in part to what I mentioned above with all the different options and user interfaces overlays and what not, but still the numbers reflect an overall positive sign for Android. They do however mention Windows Phone 7 has a much more satisfactory rating compared to the old Windows Mobile, and again RIM is in last.

The rest of the survey talks mainly about Apple and iOS as well as the Rim/Blackberry situation so I wont go into all of that with much detail. I do like reading these sorts of surveys and polls especially when they go back as far as 2008 so we can get a clear picture like the first chat shown. With Google having great numbers in recent revenue reports, and with over 550,000 new Android phones being activated daily these numbers are sure to continue to rise. What do you guys think of these surveys? Are they even worth the read for average users? I like to see the changes and increases but then I’m an android junkie so I don’t really count.

Our thoughts might be biased here at Android Community, as well as our readers but how do you guys feel. Are more than 50% of us satisfied with our android experience? I know I am. Feel free to comment below with any thoughts you may have as we love to read them all.

[via ChangeWave Research]