A new survey shows that for some reason people who don’t own an Apple iPhone would love to own an Apple iPad. It’s logical to think people who own a certain type of smartphone – one running Google‘s Android or Research In Motion‘s BlackBerry operating system, for example – would prefer to buy tablets based on the same software or related software. Matching the operating system should yield a more consistent user experience and ensure that at least some apps can be shared between devices. A new survey from market researcher Maritz Research, however, indicates a preference for iPads even among people that own Android, BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows mobile phones. The survey, which was conducted online in mid-to-late November, polled about 2,500 people across the country. Respondents were asked which of 14 tablets (from 11 different manufacturers) they would choose if they were to buy a tablet. For the most part, they pointed to the iPad regardless of the smartphone operating system they currently used.

This was particularly true of BlackBerry users. More than half (53%) of survey respondents who identified themselves as BlackBerry users said they would like an iPad if they were to buy a tablet. A much smaller percentage of BlackBerry owners opted for the other two most popular choices in the study: Amazon’s Kindle Fire (12%) or Samsung’s Galaxy Tab (11%).

Android users showed a similar liking for iPads. Respondents who identified as Android phone users favored the iPad over the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab with 41% indicating preference for the iPad, 15% for the Kindle Fire and 19% for the Galaxy Tab. (Both the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab run on Android though the Fire’s software has been highly customized by Amazon.)

Windows Mobile/Phone users exhibited comparable characteristics with 40% selecting preference for the iPad, 16% for the Kindle Fire and 12% for the Galaxy Tab. The study did include one Windows-powered tablet, HP’s Slate 500, but few Windows Mobile/Phone users said they would opt for it.