Possession Versus Utilization

Horace Dediu, analyzing the discrepancy between iPhone and Android smartphone market share, and usage share of paid Wi-Fi services at airports and during flights:

What the data seems to suggest therefore is that for data services the iPhone is a far more popular tool than Android. But for in-app ad impressions and browsing the products are used in a similar manner.

The big difference is however that the services where iPhone utilization is high are those where users have to pay something. Most (if not all) of the ad impressions in apps are for free apps. So ad consumption scales with possession. But non-free services don’t. This data seems to support the hypothesis that Android users are disproportionately less willing to spend money (note that the data does not say that users don’t have money, but simply that they are not spending it).

iPhone users and Android users are simply very different. And consider, too, that Google is probably just fine with Android’s don’t-want-to-pay-for-anything user base: Google doesn’t really care about selling anything to Android users, they just want to show them ads.

★ Thursday, 22 September 2011