Despite the surge in Android phones, iPhone owners are still by far the ones most loyal to their devices, according to a study out this week by mobile analytics provider Zokem.

Based on results from Zokem's U.S. Mobile Life panel in 2010, the iPhone took home a loyalty score of 73, far surpassing the score of 40 given to its closest competitor Android.

Gauging the loyalty that smartphone owners have for their current devices, the score looks at whether people will stick with the same brand for their next purchase as well as other factors. Even among non-iPhone users collectively, the No. 1 preference for their next phone is an iPhone.

Though sales of Android phones were hot in 2010, the few iPhone models available sell more than any one specific Android device, according to Zokem.

"As a platform, however, Android is a fair competitor--and in certain numbers, bigger than iPhone--but the industry attention is still geared towards the iPhone as the leading smartphone platform, particularly in the U.S.," noted the report.

Lower on the loyalty charts were Research In Motion's BlackBerry with a score of 30, and Windows Mobile and the Palm Pre OS, with scores of 10.

Looking specifically at which phones people are most likely to repurchase, Android actually beat the iPhone by a narrow margin. Among those polled, 89 percent of current Android users are likely to stick with the same brand, while 85 percent of iPhone users plan to stay with Apple.

"The figures suggest clearly that iPhone is the top performing platform in terms of user loyalty, and therefore, it is an increasingly likely pick for a repurchase," Zokem CEO Hannu Verkasalo said in a statement. "Android is a good No. 2 in the U.S. market, even though the loyalty score is not nearly as high as it is for iPhones, but it seems that people who are using Android are also very likely to buy an Android-based device as their next smartphone too."

To compile its study, Zokem questioned more than 1,500 members of its Mobile Life panel each quarter of 2010.