If you go on bare numbers sales of Android devices are forging ahead of Apple in most markets. Look closely, however and it becomes clear that cheaper Android phones and tablets are leading this surge while Apple remains dominant in the premium, higher-cost market. This is where Apple wants to be and, I would suggest, is where Apple will do well to remain. It is easy to chase prices down and enjoy market share at the cost of profits. A byproduct of Apple’s concentration on higher-end devices is that it accumulats higher-end customers, those with cash in their pockets to buy more applications, more goods from the internet and, crucially, attract more advertising clicks.
Mobile devices now account for 37% of all shopping traffic and no less than 21% of on-line sales. Break down these impressive figures and you find some interesting detail. As Apple Insider points out in this article, iOS devices are remarkably dominant.
…..when breaking down those numbers by mobile platform, IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark group reported that iOS devices accounted for more than 4.5 times the total sales of Android or over an 80 percent share of mobile-oriented sales, with 17.3 percent of all online sales occurring on an Apple mobile device versus just 3.75 percent on Android products. IBM stated that iOS users also spent an average of 18 percent more per order: $131.34 versus $111.35 for average Android sales. Apple’s iOS devices also made up 26 percent of all overall mobile traffic, compared to just 11 percent for Android. Microsoft’s Windows Phone, BlackBerry and other mobile platforms didn’t represent enough activity to mention.
The leading share of online shopping grabbed by iOS users parallels the 84 percent share of tablets claimed by iPad in Chitika’s web analytics, the leading share taken by iOS in app developer’s revenue seen per download, and the over 80 percent usage stats reported among education and enterprise users.
The staggering statement in the above quote is that Windows Phone, BlackBerry and other mobile platforms activities were too low to monitor.