Findings from a recent study conducted by iGR on the buying habits of consumer communication products, found that 71 percent of new phone purchases were smartphones.

The report, entitled "U.S. Consumer Smartphone Profile: Current Use and Future Purchase Plans", is available for purchase from the research catalog on iGR's website.

Of those surveyed, the average price paid for a handset was $114. For their next handset, interviewees said they planned to spend $127. Consumers say they will pay an additional $11 for a handset by Apple over a similar Android (News - Alert) device.

According to iGR research, Apple loyalty prevails when it comes to tablets, too. Unfortunately, there "is very little an Android OEM can do, for example, to win over someone interested in an iPad," surmises the abstract of another recent report from iGR: "Tablets in the US: a Tale of Two Markets."

iGR president and founder, Iain Gillott said that, currently, smartphones are significantly more common among the below 45 crowd, but we will probably see this demographic barrier erode in the near future.

Digital Journal suggests that iGR's findings may signify the decline of traditional desktop computing. If the market does maintain a soft spot for the old stick-in-the-mud desktop model, it will most likely survive as a counterpart to mobile devices. Increasingly, connectivity seems to be a priority.

This is a good guess, but it remains highly likely that one core demographic will be reluctant give up their desktops in the near future: hardware heads. The "hands-on," "home-modification" element to custom desktop machines has not quite spread to tablets and smartphones. Why? There just aren't as many moving pieces inside of a smartphone for the average user to take apart, tinker with, and modify.

Unless you have access to the billion dollar technology required, and the decades of educational background in engineering and science necessary to know how to operate it, there is not a heck of a lot you can do with your smartphone once you pop the back of it open and look inside.

At least you can set your own custom wallpaper.