Android dominate iOS by a huge margin, and I think it is ahead even in the high end segment. You can understand that people going for high end will spend more money on apps, but still price of apps is basically the same between iOS and Android, and iOS is not lacking in diversity including free software. So it is quite surprising that even a few buys from the middle and entry level consumers cannot offset Apple advantage.
And I write advantage, but I'm not even sure what it is exactly. iOS users spend more because they like Apple stuff was a nice narrative when Apple was a edgy high end alternative to mainstream. But in the smartphone world, Apple is mainstream, and yet the same behaviour is observed even with a much wider consumer base.
Is that because Apple brand is so strong that buying Apple change the consumer behaviour. (I have noticed that paying for stuff when you have Apple hardware is socially more acceptable. Like I bought BetterZip and my colleague didn't blink, but I paid for the Winrar license on windows and that was considered like sacrilegious. Like buying software for linux was considered weird but not on windows) Or is it because the Apple environment is just a tiny bit better that it makes a difference at the time of splashing 2 GBP on a game ?
Another alternative is that it is just that the app market is catching up more slowly than the hardware market, and it is just a question of time before sanity prevail. At least for the time being, my monkey brain is happy to have the social validation to have bought the "right brand of smartphone" :-)
Every piece of data I've seen on this - for phones >$400, which is generally reckoned "high end" - suggests that's not correct. Most of Samsung's phones are not Galaxy S(n)[Edge][Plus]; instead they're much cheaper products.
Premium Android sales have pretty much stalled since the introduction of the large-screen iPhones over a year ago; hence LG, Sony and HTC seeing falls in sales and profit.
"Another alternative is that it is just that the app market is catching up more slowly than the hardware market"
The gap in revenue between the two platforms is getting wider by year, even while the download gap seems to be growing. So that doesn't seem a sufficient explanation.
Are we to conclude that if we took only the high end phones, iPhones would be in the majority?
If they were, Samsung's business model would be broken.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ 32GB INR 53,900.00
Samsung Note 5 64GB INR 53,900.00
Apple iPhone 6S+ 64GB INR 72,980.00
These are the highest-end Android and iOS phones available right now. There's a considerable gap in the prices. The gap is more than the gap between Android high-end and Android mid-range.
No matter how you slice it, if your business idea evolves around targeting people willing to spend money on mobile apps you're gonna find a lot more of those on the iOS ecosystem.
Also don't underestimate the fact that on Android you'll have to support more users that cannot be converted to paying customers because they simply don't care enough about apps to spend money on it.
Given the relative numbers of iPhones and Macs sold that seems unlikely.
Even thought they are barely really worth it, thats simply wrong.
I don't know of any other Android phone that costs that much and has somewhat comparable sales figures. The Samsung S6 Edge and Edge+ are the only ones close, but how many do they actually sell of these?
Android flagship is mostly in the 500 to 650€ range, iOS is in the 750 to 1000€ range.
> Even thought they are barely really worth it
I did not make any statement about the cost/value relation of iPhones. But apparently they are worth it for consumers.
You are right that by price sign barely any phones are as expensive as the iPhone (if any). But some Sony Xperia, Nokia Lumina and Samsung S6 play in the same range.
What makes the price point invalid in my POV is that you buy it with a contract usually. AFAIK the majority does. All the above mentioned phones will be $100, all the others (including the 32GB versions of the iPhone 6) are $0.
Also clearly you cant compare the sale figures. Apple makes 1 phone every other year. While the others mass produce models and usually create new ones per series at least yearly. Fact is that the majority of the world population is using Android again, also the Majority in most western countries has changed back to Android (at least those i care about)
I argue that Apple customers are less price sensitive than Android users. (on average) I know there are many Android users here that are less price sensitive than the average Apple users, but not everyone is part of the tech industry.
About the contracts: I don't know about the US, but in Austria/Germany the iPhones are more expensive even on contracts. I wonder how that could be that the price of a Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6S could be identical in the US on contract.