Cast Member Lambert Wilson arrives on the red carpet for the screening of the film Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men) in competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, May 18, 2010. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier Apple may be losing ground to Android and Microsoft in the smartphone operating system market, but the company is still succeeding in winning customers from it's number one rival, Samsung.

Apple has taken three times as many customers from Samsung as Samsung has taken from Apple in the past year, according to a new study of US consumers.

Figures published by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) also reveal that 20 per cent of Apple's iPhone customers over the past year were switching from an Android phone, but only 7 per cent of Samsung buyers had previously owned an iPhone.

While this is good news for Apple, the company is still struggling to attract first-time smartphone buyers. The report states that Samsung drew 37 per cent of customers upgrading from so-called feature phones, compared to 26 per cent who chose Apple.

"Samsung gets more customers upgrading from basic phones than Apple does. However, there are significant differences between Apple and Samsung buyers that switch brands, and those that remain," said CIRP in its report.

"Samsung buyers are mostly prior Android and basic phone owners. Apple owners similarly come from iOS, with a smaller share of these customers coming from basic phones. 42 percent of Apple customers already have the Apple iOS operating system, while 43 percent of Samsung customers have Android."

The figures are based on surveys of smartphone buyers from July 2012-June 2013, comprising four quarterly surveys. Each survey consists of 500 subjects who had purchased a mobile phone in the preceding 90 days.

The survey also gathered demographic data, which showed that Apple's customers tend to be richer and better educated than Samsung's. However, iPhone owners tend to be a little younger, with 69 percent aged between 18 and 34.

Among switchers, Samsung drew more customers from HTC, Motorola, and Nokia, while Apple drew more from Blackberry.

Figures from research firm IDC earlier this month revealed that Apple’s share in the global smartphone operating system market has decreased, while Android and Microsoft’s offerings have gained.

The Apple operating system shipped 32.2 million units in the second quarter, up from 26 million for the same period in 2012, but its market share fell to 13.2 per cent from 16.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, Android’s cemented its position at the top of the smartphone operating systems table with a 79.3 per cent share of the market, up from 69.1 per cent.