After surveying both U.S. and European smartphone owners, researchers not only found owners of the Apple device more frequently use apps, but conduct more tasks suitable to smartphones, such as browsing the Internet. This despite Android’s advantage both in number of handsets out there and in sales.
The dichotomy just reinforces our Android in a Drawer theory, which says many owners of the Google-powered devices see their handsets as just a spiffier version of dumb feature phones, ignoring most of what makes smartphones smart…
Indeed, in app categories ranging from weather to sports, iOS owners reported more frequent usage, according to a survey by Forrester (via TechCrunch) of U.S. smartphone owners. Weather is the most popular app category among both platforms, yet more iOS owners said they checked the weather more often, 71 percent to 65 percent.
Okay, so maybe iOS owners are more antsy about the weather, or maps or music – there must be some sign that Android owners are leading smartphone usage, right?
More than 90 percent of iPhone owners told the researchers they browsed the internet at least once a week. Just 80 percent of Android owners report doing the same. Messaging – a function often performed on dumb feature phones – was where we saw the closest usage pattern.
For Apple iPhone owners: 90 percent said they messaged at least once in the past week, versus 83 percent of Android owners. The disparity reappears when it comes to app usage: 89 percent versus 76 percent, according to Forrester.
The figures show “while Android continues to grow in popularity, it has yet to grab that premium class of consumers who use their phones the most and are the most attractive consumers for app makers,†writes TechCrunch.
So what do you think ?
