Any color as long as it's black: smartphone preferences

Whether from the UK, US China or France, smartphone owners all appear to have one thing in common -- they prefer black to any other handset color.

The findings of the survey, carried out by research firm Strategy Analytics, could be bad news for Microsoft. One of the standout features of its Lumia handsets is their incredibly bright color palette of cyan, yellow, green, orange and red. It might even be a possible theory as to why the company is struggling to gain a significant foothold in the smartphone market.

When asked, over half of UK (54%) and French (51%) respondents said that black would be the preferred color of their next handset; a sentiment shared by 48% of German and 45% of US respondents and 38 percent of those polled in China.

Strategy Analytics claims that black has topped its poll of 3,5000 smartphone owners for six years in a row. However, its lead is starting to slip and younger consumers in some countries are expressing an interest in brighter hues. Women are also more likely to consider other colors as well as black.

"Mature consumers in France, Germany and China showed slightly greater interest in black than youth in these countries, while in the UK, youth showed most interest in a black phone. Interest in this color dropped most significantly with decreasing age in China," Monica Wong, analyst and report author commented.

But as well as age, color preference appears to be linked to brand. When companies known for producing phones in a range of colors were mentioned, interest in colors other than back was higher.

For example, white, the device color popularized by Apple over the past decade or so but a color that didn't come to the iPhone until its third iteration, was ranked as the second most popular color globally --  between 8 and 11% of consumers in US, UK, France and Germany expressed a preference and it attracted a 20% approval rate in China.

"Handset manufacturers should continue to provide multiple color options for consumers to choose when purchasing a new phone. Introducing a variety of color options for a mobile phone provides the consumer with a more distinct and customized phone, with many finding interest in customization options such as that offered by the Moto X," added Paul Brown, Director Wireless Device Lab.