U.S. Christmas Day Shoppers Bought More on iOS Than Android

If you purchased something from a mobile device on Christmas Day, chances are that device was an iPhone or an iPad.

So says IBM, whose latest Digital Analytics Benchmark Report found that purchases made from iOS devices accounted for about 23 percent of the online shopping done on Christmas Day in the U.S. According to Big Blue, which tracked millions of transactions from approximately 800 U.S. retail websites, that’s about five times as many purchases as the 4.6 percent that were made from Android devices.

What’s more, those purchase were generally more costly. iOS users spent an average of $93.94 per order, versus $48.10 for Android — nearly double. Finally, iOS devices accounted for 32.6 percent of the Christmas Day traffic IBM charted, compared to 14.8 percent for Android.

True, this is only U.S. data, but it speaks to an important metric in the iOS versus Android discussion — usage. Android may have a greater share of the mobile devices market, but iOS devices continue to rule in usage measurements. And that’s worth noting. Recall that one of the big numbers Apple rolled out at its fall iPad event was a metric claiming that the iPad has captured an 81 percent share of tablet usage. And according to CEO Tim Cook, that’s the metric that matters most to Apple.

“Does a unit of market share matter if it’s not being used?” Cook asked Bloomberg earlier this year. “For us, it matters that people use our products. We really want to enrich people’s lives, and you can’t enrich somebody’s life if the product is in the drawer.”