Citing a recent survey of more than 3,000 mobile phone users across France, Germany, and Europe, Canalys says it found strong interest in touchscreen phones across demographic groups, tariff types, and countries. According to the U.K.-based research firm, 54 percent of respondents said they wanted their next mobile phone to sport a touchscreen. Of these, 38 percent wanted a finger-based touchscreen, while 16 percent would opt for a stylus-based touchscreen.

But, when those who already have touchscreen devices were surveyed, only 47 percent said they would choose the same type of user interface (UI) on their next phone, Canalys adds. It wasn't made clear whether this finding stands as a repudiation of the touchscreen experience overall, or just an indictment of present-day implementations.

Looking at the results by handset brand, HTC and Apple stood out as having a "higher proportion" of touchscreen users who want to stick with the same UI (and, presumably, vendor), according to the firm. But at the other end of the spectrum, only 29 percent of Sony Ericsson touchscreen users would purchase the same UI again, adds Canalys.

Pete Cunningham, senior analyst at Canalys, stated, "The results suggest that consumer awareness of touchscreen UIs is very high, driven by the marketing of Apple, Samsung and others, and there is no doubt that the changes in device design we have seen over the past couple of years have produced some very exciting products. But it is also apparent that, with experience, a significant proportion of users have not been totally won over by some of these devices."

"There has always been a question mark over how well touchscreens would work among an SMS-centric audience, and the results indicate the transition has not been totally smooth," Cunningham added." Of course, touchscreen phones that supplement their screens with slide-out QWERTY keyboards, such as Verizon's "Droid by Motorola" (below) cater handily for messaging-oriented users; Canalys did not specify how many of its survey respondents are using this type of hybrid device.

In the Android world, after an initial backlash against HTC's original "clunky" keyboard-enabled G1, the vendor offered a series of streamlined, touchscreen-only models such as its MyTouch 3G (pictured above, right) and Hero phones. These and other Android models were designed to take advantage of Android 1.5's new virtual keyboard. However, more recently there appears to be a modest trend back to keyboard-ready slider designs such as the Droid and the Samsung Moment, at least among high-end Android phones.

Verizon's "Droid by Motorola" may represent a trend away from touchscreen-only smartphones

Interestingly, the group with the least desire for a finger-centric touchscreen phone was made up of those who are already using stylus-based devices, says Canalys. "This is another example of how strongly current user experience sets future expectations,” Cunningham explained. "It is likely that many of those users perceive moving from stylus to finger as a loss of precision that would degrade usability, hence the underlying resistance."

However, within this group there was notably less push back by current HTC and Samsung owners, says Canalys. This suggests once again that the problem may not lie with touchscreens per se, but with the the physical responsiveness of the touchscreen technology, as well as the sophistication of the supplied touch UI.

Availability

Canalys is presumably offering a more granular analysis of its survey results to handset vendors, though availability and pricing were not detailed. More information may be found on the company's website, here.

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