Overall, 61 per cent of the participants said that it would take a discount of 30 per cent or more to get them to choose a non-Apple mobile device.

Shope's research found that 30 per cent of his poll's participants are paying for extra storage capacity in iCloud or iTunes Match, services that could add switching costs for customers with more than one device.

"Considering that Apple has disclosed that it has as on its earnings release on April 24, this is quickly becoming yet another high-margin revenue stream for the company," wrote Shope. "More important, however, this also suggests that a large portion of Apple's installed base is adding yet another source of explicit switching costs."

Overall, Shope's survey has led him to estimate that it costs iOS users between $122 and $301 (£78 - £192) to switch to a different mobile platform, implying that it would take a discount of almost half price in order to make a switch inexpensive.