Blackberry customers are turning their back on their favourite phones after the firm’s recent difficulties, a new research has revealed.

Nearly half of all BlackBerry users say they will get a different device when they change handsets, The Telegraph quoted a YouGov study, as saying.

The YouGov study comes in the wake of the Canada-based BlackBerry maker struggling to provide email, internet and instant messaging services after a data server in Slough crashed during an upgrade. Customers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and America were all affected, and the company has subsequently offered users a suite of free apps as compensation. Some operators have gone further and offered additional airtime.

The survey also uses a 'Promoter Score'; it fell to -six in October, from +15 in September. Overall, only 57 per cent of BlackBerry users would consider getting a BlackBerry again, compared to 69 per cent in September; the number of people who would get a BlackBerry again fell 11 per cent to 42 percent.

According to The Guardian, RIM's reputation is in tatters. Hammered by falling profits, the company is now valued at just under $13bn. The BlackBerry's popularity with British teenagers led it to be dubbed the "riot phone" after this summer's rampages. Its pioneering mobile email service has just emerged from its worst-ever system failure – almost four days of outage spread across the world and into the company's North American heartland. Public figures from Sir Alan Sugar to Alastair Campbell have vented their fury.