According to a March 17 to 24 ChangeWave survey of 3,597 consumers, the battle for supremacy in the smart phone industry has transformed into a two-way race between Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry and the Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

The survey shows RIM dominating in terms of current consumer smart phone market share; however the Apple iPhone shows tremendous momentum going forward. The survey reveals, in addition, accelerating woes for smart phone maker Palm (PALM) and its Treo.

The RIM BlackBerry (42%; down 1-pt) maintains, in terms of the current marketplace, its huge lead among consumers while second place Palm (16%; down 2-pts) continues a two-year decline. This was the seventh-consecutive ChangeWave survey in which Palm's market share has dropped.

Closing in fast on Palm is the Apple iPhone (9%), which continues to score exceptional growth in the smart phone market. Customer satisfaction ratings point out why.

Considerably ahead of all other manufacturers in the smart phone market including second place RIM (54%), the iPhone receives an astonishing 79 percent 'Very Satisfied' rating among its owners. Palm (22%) once again ranks at the bottom in terms of customer satisfaction.

Better than one-in-three (35%) respondents planning to purchase a smart phone in the next 90 days say they'll purchase an Apple iPhone - a 12-point leap since the previous survey in January.

Founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing, Tobin Smith, said: "The biggest reasons for the surge are the recent Apple announcements on the iPhone Software Development Kit and the new 2.0 Operating System". "One-in-10 respondents now say they're more likely to purchase an iPhone in the future because of the new software."

The ChangeWave survey also asked respondents which mobile operating system they'd like to have on the smart phone they plan on buying. The consumer market is once again dominated by the RIM and Apple operating systems.

The survey does provide an initial look at the Google's (GOOG) Android operating system market potential, although it isn't being offered yet to the general public. And while the number of respondents saying they're Very Likely to use the Android was just 2 percent, another 15 percent did say they're Somewhat Likely to use the new OS.

Smith said: "These numbers do show some consumer interest in the Android Operating System". "but based on the ultra-competitive battle between RIM and Apple, there's little likelihood of the Android gaining traction on either one's OS. They're sucking up all the oxygen in this market."