In addition to profit, engagement is another arena in which iOS and Android differ significantly. I have repeatedly asked: what do Android users do with their phones? Despite Android's massive market share, its users lag behind in every metric of mobile engagement: less browsing, less WiFi use, fewer photos uploaded, fewer app purchases, fewer games played, fewer online purchases, and so on and so on.
Asymco goes into this today with news that 77% of mobile retail traffic came from iOS devices this Thanksgiving weekend:
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We’ve become accustomed to thinking that platforms that look similar are used in a similar fashion. But this is clearly not the case. The shopping data is only one proxy but there are others: developers and publishers have been reporting distinct differences in consumption on iOS vs. Android and, although anecdotal, the examples continue to pile up.
And engagement is not a frivolous platform attribute. It is highly causal to success because it correlates with all cash flows associated with ecosystem value creation. Especially when a platform like Android depends more on engagement than “monetizing hardware.”
I’m not satisfied with the explanation that Android users are demographically different because the Android user pool is now so vast and because the most popular devices are not exactly cheap. There is something else at play. It might be explained by design considerations or by user experience flaws or integration but something is different.
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Someone I know recently bought himself a Galaxy SIII. Not long after, I offered him some Google Play credit, or just some apps he wanted, for his birthday. He turned me down, saying, "I don't know about the Google Play store because I have never tried to buy anything off of it. I haven't been using many new apps lately (other than what I downloaded when I first got the phone)." I ended up getting him a case instead.