We’ve long compared the iOS and Android platforms and their benefits to app makers. While Android accounts for four in five global smartphone sales, Apple’s OS continues to prove most profitable for app companies – even with a much smaller market share.
Earlier this year, Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt reported that Apple’s users spend four times as much as Google’s. That magic number was once again seen in last week’s Black Friday sales, where iOS users drove four times as much sales revenue as Android users.
This underscores the relative popularity of the Apple platform compared to Google’s Android. Simply put, that’s where the money is. There are distinct differences between iOS and Android users that make Apple’s platform more valuable to app makers. By and large, people who use Apple products have higher income, higher education, and a higher representation in professional jobs.
The boom of Apple-powered Thanksgiving week shopping follows a successful launch of the newest line of smartphones and the release of iOS 8. A report from mobile marketing firm Fiksu shows that App Store downloads surged to the highest level ever in October.
That being said, sales revenue from last week shows that Black Friday’s significance as a shopping event is on the wane. More purchases are occurring outside physical shopping centers both online and on mobile devices. Waiting in interminable lines in the cold sucks, studies show…
As the busiest shopping season of the year continues, we expect to see reports much like those of the 2013 holiday season, when iOS users accounted for more than five times as many online sales as their Android counterparts.
Image: Jason Howie / license