A recent survey of 3,000 mobile phone users across France, Germany and the UK indicated promising feedback for the touchscreen industry.

Of those polled, 38% said a finger-based touchscreen would be their first port of call when hunting for a new mobile, while a further 16% would opt for a stylus-based touchscreen, suggesting a continuing market shift toward touch-centric devices.

This certainly strikes a chord with smart phone vendors whose designs are focused on delivering enhanced consumer experience and could nudge those lagging behind to reconsider their strategies.

Looking at the results by handset brand, HTC and Apple stood out as having a much higher proportion of users wanting to stick with the same type of UI, while Sony Ericsson had the lowest proportion among the major handset vendors, at just 29%.