It’s also a matter of Apple’s apps.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: New research has emerged about the ownership of iPhones and Android-based smartphones in the US, and reveals that the former tends to belong to the more affluent, urban customer base, while Androids are largely the domain of the middle and lower class.
![A map showing iPhone-heavy Manhattan (center, bright red) surrounded by greener, Android-friendly areas](http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/iPhoneMap-300x210.jpg)
Data compiled by MapBox, a company that designs and creates interactive maps, and Gnip, a firm that collects and aggregates information from various social media platforms, shows that iPhones tend to be the device of the wealthy and privileged. Because Apple charges high prices for its products, trends show that generally only people with high incomes buy their phones. Additionally, iPhone users buy apps more frequently than their Android counterparts, which is another reason iPhones tend to skew towards richer, city-bound folk.
Android, meanwhile, has been adopted by more cost-efficient cell phone manufacturers, while trends show that Android users purchase fewer apps for their devices. That data indicates that Android is favored by users with less income, who can’t afford to pay Apple’s premium prices. App developers are said to make twice as much from selling their apps Apple’s App store than the Android Marketplace.
The research looked at nearly three billion tweets, posted from nearly 280 million unique locations via smartphones in and around New York City, Los Angeles, and other major metropolitan areas, creating a map of dots that were red for iPhones and green for Androids. The company also looked at information coming from Blackberry phones, which it marked with purple dots, showing that the once-popular handheld device is quickly disappearing, even from the New York City Financial District in which it was once so pervasive.
Los Angeles displayed a similar preponderance for iPhones in its heaviest urban areas, as did San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Dallas shows the same trend, but not to as severe an extent, while Detroit has only a small pocket of concentrated red surrounded by a vast majority of green – not exactly a surprise, given the city’s financial problems over the last few years. Additionally, the study looked at major cities in other countries, like London and Paris, but the iPhone/Android disparity noticed in the US was not as prevalent in these areas.
The study also found that Spanish is the second-most commonly tweeted language in the US. Worldwide, Tamil is the most widely tweeted Indian language, but is very low on the overall list. Hindi and Bengali follow shortly behind, while Punjabi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Gujarati also registered a presence on the interactive map.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com
1 Comment
Android devices are cheap and straight up ghetto devices. Take note of the users you see using them, LOL. WOW, right? The proof is in the pudding here folks.