It was a great Christmas for iOS, according to new figures released by IBM, which monitored mobile traffic for online shopping over the holidays.
What it discovered was that a massive 57.1 percent of online shopping via a mobile device was carried out using an iPhone or iPad: up 8.3 percent compared to the previous year.
While no direct explanations were drawn, this has to be due to the enormous success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which some analysts have predicted was set to sell a massive 71.5 million units over the festive season.
Not only did Apple trounce its Android rivals in the quantity of online shopping carried out, but also in the size of individual orders. In the United States, iOS accounted for an average of $97.28 per order on Christmas Day, compared to just $67.40 on Android. Similar trends were seen at Thanksgiving 2014, with average iOS orders worth $118.57 compared to $95.57 for Android.
One other interesting factoid coming out of IBM’s latest piece of research is that smartphones accounted for more than 40 percent of online traffic over Christmas, while tablets made up 16 percent: indicating just how crucial mobile devices are when it comes to making people spend money online.
With the continued rise of Apple Pay, which makes online payments easier than ever, look for that number to increase throughout 2015.
Source: VentureBeat
Via: Redmond Pie
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
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One response to “iOS devices dominate online Christmas shopping stats”
Sorry. Not buying it. Here’s why: the ever Apple/iOS moving target caused by shifting the goal posts. Apple fans have gone from claiming that Android would collapse outright initially to claiming that it would be impossible for anyone but Samsung and Google to make a profit on to now settling for iOS being used for substantially more e-commerce transactions. (Never mind that Google Wallet accounts for twice as many store purchases as Apple Pay, especially in the context of Apple’s claims that Google Wallet was a failure that no one was using.)
It doesn’t matter that iOS moves more merchandise or that iOS consumers spend more on average. Instead, it matters that purchases (both online and in stores) are being made on Android, which means that retailers, advertisers and developers will continue to target Android. So the reality: Android doesn’t need to be first in every category or metric (or in reality first in whatever ever-changing statistic that Apple fans latch onto to show that iOS is REALLY number 1 in THE AREAS THAT COUNT). Instead, Android merely needs to:
A) maintain its market share position in order to deter competition from the likes of Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Firefox OS and AOSP forks like Amazon
B) generate sufficient profit for multiple OEMs such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Lenovo/Motorola, Huawei, Nvidia, Sony, Dell, HP (and now Nokia and Kodak!) to continue their device manufacturing, marketing and R&D efforts
In other words, beating Apple in everything doesn’t matter. Being #1 in market share (necessary because of the MANY Android OEMs that need to turn a profit on their devices) and no worse than #2 in everything else is what matters. So long as that continues to happen, app developers, accessory manufacturers, etc. will continue to support Android. Many, indeed most, will continue to make Apple their first and primary area of concern, but they will still see Android as a logical way to duplicate their efforts to create a second revenue stream. Basically, if you come out with an innovative app that makes a bundle on iOS, making an Android version of that app is now more likely to make money than coming up with a second app. This was not the case in 2012 and may not have been the case in 2013, but it is definitely true for 2014 and going forward.