The informal survey, courtesy of Calinnovates.org, polled 600 Californian voters over their political persuasions and handset preferences ahead of the gubernatorial election. And it made for some interesting, if not entirely surprising, reading.

Apparently, of the iPhone owners quizzed some 57 per cent are backing Democrat candidate Jerry Brown. BlackBerry owners beg to differ. Just under 50 per cent of them are backing Republican Meg Whitman.

We’re not familiar enough with the candidates to express an opinion about the politicos bidding to bring the Sunshine State out of the economic darkness it’s been in the last few years. But we’re happy to say that the findings won’t be welcomed by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, which has been working hard to change the image of the phones from sober, business mobiles to something altogether hipper.

It was this that was presumably behind the use of The Beatles ‘All You Need is Love’ in recent TV campaign, coupled with breakdancers and shots of young revellers at summer music festivals. The campaign’s slogan ‘Love What You Do’ is also calculated to reposition BlackBerrys as phones for touchy-feely types who aren’t motivated by money and eschew the corporate world.

Even so if BlackBerrys’ image hasn’t changed in the US, things do seem to be shifting in Blighty. Barely a day goes for me right now when I don’t espy a hipster or school-age teen on the Tube tapping away on the QWERTY keypad of a Bold or Curve.

Although rather than the campaign fuelling the change, we suspect something else is afoot. Rather like, one-time fusty brands like Ralph Lauren, it’s acquired a kind of strange geek chic among folk who've been turned off by iPhones ever-growing ubiquity.