Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS, continues to blow away Google’s Android in mobile commerce, according to IBM analytics.
IBM issued a news release about what it saw during Christmas. It’s not good for Android:
iOS vs. Android: As a percentage of total online sales, iOS was more than five times higher than Android, driving 23 percent vs. 4.6 percent for Android. On average, iOS users spent $93.94 per order, nearly twice that of Android users, who spent $48.10 per order. iOS also led as a component of overall traffic with 32.6 percent vs. 14.8 percent for Android.
Over and over we hear about Apple getting creamed by Android in marketshare, and yet, IBM’s data say that iOS is a clear-cut winner when it comes to mobile traffic and shopping.
The caveat here is that is U.S.-only data. But, in the U.S. iOS reportedly has a minority share of the smartphone market. Android is supposedly the biggest operating system.
The only reason people think Apple is in trouble is because its share of the smartphone market is small. The debate around iOS and Android market share matters because historically, developers have gravitated to one platform and prioritized their efforts for that platform. The platform that typically wins has the most users.
As a result, the growth of Android would suggest developers are going to make the best apps for Android and thus relegate iOS to a second-tier platform.
But, if the market share numbers are hollow — that is, if no one is using Android, despite big market share — then it doesn’t matter. Developers will develop for people that actually use the devices, and people that actually spend money on those devices.
Source: businessinsider.com
