Android vs iPhone: The State of Mobile Commerce

Google's Android mobile operating system passed Apple's iOS in market share more than a year ago. But a new study of e-commerce transactions shows there are still more mobile shoppers on iOS in most states in the nation. Apple's iOS outpaces Google's Android in transactions in all but seven states in the U.S.: Iowa, Kansas, Idaho, Montana, Maine, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (An eighth, Nebraska, is 50-50, according to the study) Every other state is Apple iOS country when it comes to shopping, particularly affluent states on the coasts. "Affluent, tech forward markets like California the Northeast are still skewing Apple," according to James Lamberti, general manager of AdTruth, the company that conducted the study. These markets are more willing to share their personal and credit card information with Apple and are thus more likely to make mobile purchases than Android users, he added. Overall, iOS accounted for 57% of mobile commerce transactions to Android's 43% in the first half of this year, according to the study. iOS's lead is significant considering Android has more total users. Market research firm eMarketer said 16.9% of the U.S. population will use iOS smartphones this year compared with the 20.3% that will use Android devices. AdTruth, a mobile ad tech company that can identify the kind of device being used to visit a mobile website or app, tracked more than 700,000 m-commerce transactions from Jan. 1. to June 30 to come up with its numbers. The data was then arranged in a state-by-state map that resembles something you'd see on CNN on election night, only instead of using red or blue to indicate Republican and Democratic-leaning states, respectively, AdTruth green and purple to show whether a state runs Android or iOS. While there are far more solid iOS states than Android states, there are also plenty of swing states where the margin is tight. iOS dominated in eastern U.S. states, having a lead or tying in all but two states east of the Mississippi River (Maine and Wisconsin being the two execptions). The most skewed states were Alaska with 75% of transactions on iOS devices and Iowa which was 65% Android. AdTruth said it did not include Windows or BlackBerry in this study because their mobile OSs account for less than two percent of all m-commerce transactions nationally. The battle for smartphone supremacy is indeed like a presidential election, then; there are several contenders, but it's ultimately a two-horse race.

Android vs iPhone: The State of Mobile Commerce

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