How devoted are Apple users to the Apple ecosystem?

Very, according to a new Forrester survey. Microsoft and Google don't fare as well.

The bar at top represents entire user population. The left pie chart shows the 6% who are "devoted" to a particular mobile ecosystem. The right pie chart shows the 9% who are merely "loyal." Source: Forrester Research Inc. Click to enlarge.

FORTUNE -- According to a Forrester survey released this week, the vast majority of computer users (85% worldwide, 88% in the U.S.) have little or no loyalty to a particular mobile computing ecosystem -- the nexus of devices, software, services and sheer muscle memory that tie a user to one vendor or another.

Among those users who show any loyalty at all, Apple (AAPL) dominates. No big surprise there. What is a little surprising -- or at least new -- is what that loyalty looks like when measured quantitatively and served up in pie charts like the one above.

To take the full measure of ecosystem devotion, Forrester's Charles Golvin divided the user population into three groups:

• The Free Radicals, who have little to no loyalty. This group consists of two subgroups: those who own exactly one type of device and those who own multiple devices, all of which come from a different ecosystem.
• The Loyalists, who have moderate or divided loyalty. This group is made up of those using multiple devices, a majority of which — but not all — are tied to a single ecosystem.
• The Devotees, who are strongly loyal to a single ecosystem. This segment consists of those using multiple devices, all of which come from a single ecosystem.

As the pie chart above shows, Apple users represent 58% of the world's loyalists and 56% of its devotees. Among U.S. consumers, its dominance is even greater: 59% of loyalists and 71% -- repeat, 71% -- of devotees.

Microsoft (MSFT) is a contender in the devotee category (44% global info workers, 27% U.S. consumer), largely because Windows is still has a firm grip on 85% of the workplace PC market.

Google (GOOG), thanks to Android's majority share of the global smartphone market and growing share in tablets, has its loyalists -- 17% globally and 10% in the U.S. But until Chromebooks catch on, the number of Google devotees will remain, in Golvin's words, "vanishingly small."

Posted in: Android, Apple, Ecosystem, Forrester, Google, Microsoft, Mobile

• Hell freezes over: Forrester urges IT to support the Mac

  The voice of Windows in the enterprise discovers that Mac users are more productive

  That 41% of enterprises won't let Apple (AAPL) PCs anywhere near their computing services -- not even e-mail or the Internet -- should come as no surprise to the IT professionals who subscribe to Forrester Research's market research reports. After all, it reflects the advice that Forrester has been giving information technology departments for decades. Take, for MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 27, 2011 8:00 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Forrester, Information technology, IT, MacBook, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, PCs, Windows

• Forrester: Amazon's tablet will bury the iPad

  "A year from now," it predicts, "'Amazon' will be synonymous with 'Android' on tablets."

  The last time I looked closely at a research report from Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps I took her to task for predicting in June 2010 that total U.S. tablet sales from all manufacturers that year would be a modest 3.5 million -- despite the fact that Apple (AAPL) had already sold 2 million iPads worldwide in the previous MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 29, 2011 3:36 PM ET
  Posted in: Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Android, Apple, Forrester, Forrester Research, Google, iPad, Lenovo, Sarah Rotman Epps, Tablets, Toshiba

• Beatles fans trash Forrester analyst

  Flooded with angry comments after disparaging the "geezer skew" of digital downloads

  Forrester's Mark Mulligan thought he was making a point about the state of the music business, not the quality of The Beatles' music, when he posted a brief item Tuesday congratulating Steve Jobs for finally getting the Fab Four on Apple's (AAPL) music store:

  "The fact that securing the content of a band old enough to be most young MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 17, 2010 7:26 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Beatles, Forrester, iTunes, Mike Mulligan, Steve Jobs

• Today in Tech

  Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

  Oracle reportedly hired private detectives to locate new HP CEO Leo Apotheker. Apotheker's former company, SAP, had recently admitted to stealing software from Oracle via its retired TomorrowNow subsidiary. (ITWorld)
  Amazon is extending the 70% retail royalty MORE

  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Nov 9, 2010 6:00 AM ET
  Posted in: Adobe, Amazon, Facebook, Forrester, Google, Hanvon, LimeWire, Oracle, Samsung, Windows Phone 7

• Forrester: iPad sales will plummet

  Projects a "modest" 3.5 million tablets in 2010, despite the 2 million iPads Apple has sold

  Here's what I don't understand about the Forrester Research report that got so much press on Thursday -- besides the fact that it takes Microsoft's (MSFT) Steve Ballmer's side over Steve Jobs' on where the PC market is headed. (Jobs compared PCs to farm trucks; Ballmer called the iPad a PC, and Forrester's Sarah Rotman MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 18, 2010 6:29 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Forrester, iPad, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs

• Forrester: Steve Jobs is wrong, GoogleTV will work

  In a research paper by Dr. James L. McQuivey, Forrester lays out some interesting claims for Google's TV platform.

  GoogleTV wowed the audience at Google I/O this year bringing together some of the consumer industry's heavyweights behind a platform that seemed to offer a new spin on the TV.

  A month later at the Wall St. Journal's D8, Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs panned the idea of the GoogleTV as the next set-top MORE

  Seth Weintraub - Jun 14, 2010 1:53 PM ET
  Posted in: Android, apps, Developers, Forrester, Google, GoogleTV, Intel, Sony, Steve Jobs

• iPhone 4: The early reviews

  Steve Jobs' new phone gets positive -- but not glowing -- notices from three analysts

  "While the iPhone 4 isn't the leap forward that Apple paints it as," says Forrester's Charles Golvin, "it is an exceptionally beautiful device and is a substantial upgrade that will succeed in maintaining Apple's mind and market share growth."

  "While the announced features of the iPhone 4 were as expected," writes Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, "the reality MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 7, 2010 5:47 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Forrester, Gene Munster, iPhone 4, Piper Jaffray

• Windows 7, like it or not

  Four ways Microsoft will make it increasingly difficult to stick with Windows XP

  When Microsoft (MSFT) launches Windows 7 next week, its biggest competitor -- especially in the multi-user enterprises that are its target market -- will not be Linux or Apple's (AAPL) Mac OS X, but Windows XP.

  Eight years after its launch, and nearly three years after Microsoft began shipping Windows Vista (its putative successor), XP is still the operating MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 16, 2009 7:05 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Forrester, Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP

• Privileged teens and their digital toys

  Why the Kids of NYC Prep brandish BlackBlackberrys

  "We all have BlackBerrys, that's so New York," says high-school student Camille, in an episode of Bravo latest reality hit, NYC Prep. The show, a summer series that follows six teens at ritzy New York schools, has sparked a firestorm of online gossip. One recurring question: what are teens today doing with Research in Motion's (RIMM) gadget that is designed for corporate professionals MORE

  Maha Atal - Jul 17, 2009 1:03 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, BlackBerry, Bravo, Forrester, iPod, NYC Prep, Research in Motion, teens