Comments on: Study: Apple’s iPhone, iPad account for 90 percent of mobile purchases

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:48:56 +0000

Users *can* change their user agent strings, but do they?

http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/09/14/do-users-change-their-settings/

I doubt most users know or care what a user agent string is. Why would they go through the effort of changing it?

By: eReaderguy

eReaderguy — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:10:06 +0000

Darrell:
“Turn on Kindle. Finish reading current book. Turn on wireless; shop in Kindle store; purchase / download new book; turn off wireless.”
Is that not an ‘online purchase?’ And if so, are Kindle etc. device purchases included / accounted for in this study?

By: Martin Hill

Martin Hill — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:56:25 +0000

@Mark,
iPhone or iPad users could just as easily be using 3G or tethered 3G with unlimited data. Your point does not explain why 88% of those who do use the speed and convenience of wifi are iOS users.

By: Strikerage

Strikerage — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:14:53 +0000

All this says is that iPhone users buy alot more crap. It fits.

By: haze

haze — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:54:20 +0000

Well, based on all the arguments, if i ever want to make money selling apps or selling stuff online, its better working on apples’environment. .. on other issue, why not using you phone to make purchase make it a ‘dumbphone’? Does buying online really that matter to be considered as ‘smart’?

By: andrew sturgess

andrew sturgess — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:51:38 +0000

Thank, Martin, for providing some extra insight into the discussion. Whether we (as mostly geeks) like it or not, from a business point of view a greater amount of mobile purchases certainly makes a phone quite a bit smarter. Apple is classically famous for creating markets that, upon appearing, seem ludicrous and are chided as being overtly self-indulgent, yet a few years later the competition follows suit. Is the competition following just a “guilty?” Will we be calling android users adult babies when their slower phones are able to generate a consumer-friendly mobile shopping experience, and if and when the numbers even out? Probably not.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:46:02 +0000

Martin,

Knowing 88% is great if I have an airport wifi network and need to target a market. But then this data is held up as “Android users don’t use their phones”, which is not facts that it’s saying. Maybe the airport wifi doesn’t see the Galaxy Tab that’s in the building because the user has it tethered to their Android phone and is just using their 3G or 4G data connection. If I had unlimited data on my phone, why would I spend money on wifi?

By: jabberwolf

jabberwolf — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:31:51 +0000

I will agree that for “MOBILE” purchases that most are probably using the iPAD – instead of a computer. That means that most Apple users who have an iPad ( NOT AN IPHONE !!) are using it to purchase things online.

Kinda stupid actually as mobile lines are notoriously unsafe. Maybe Android users are smarter or just use computer to make purchases?! Nah – they just use computers because they dont use ipads.

Who would be stupid enough to use small screen phone to examine something they wanted to buy?! OK yes Apple users, but even they want to take a better look – thus in the “mobile” arena – ipads are being used COMPARED TO/INSTEAD OF phones to buy things. Un duh !!

By: Martin Hill

Martin Hill — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:24:01 +0000

There we go, resorting to insults again. Can’t you present your arguments without the snark Gary?
Of course % of paid apps sold is a vital metric. How else is anyone going to be able to judge the relative health of an ecosystem?

One of the major reasons Windows has been so successful is because that’s where all the developers, software, profits and peripherals were.

Guess what, today, it is iOS that has the lion’s share of developers, developer profits, apps, manfacturer profits, hardware accessories and peripherals, content and media providers and usage.

Nokia’s vast smartphone marketshare and installed base was completely useless because of the lack of all of these other metrics and Android is showing disturbing signs of a similarly hollow marketshare victory.

By: Martin Hill

Martin Hill — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:08:54 +0000

Gary, perhaps you could actually provide some evidence to back up your point of view?
To expand my original examples that back up the report of 92% of online mobile purchases coming from iOS devices:

88% of airport wifi usage by mobile devices is made by iOS devices according to Boingo.

iOS devices have a web browser marketshare 3.8x larger than Android according to Net Applications, W3Counter, WikiMedia and other web Analytics firms.

iOS developers make between 6 and 8 times the income of Android developers and 73% of new app starts are for iOS according to Flurry.

I have provided multiple examples that all indicate that Android users don’t seem to use their phones as smartphones. You have provided squat.