Flagship phones are not cheap, but a lot of Android users are not using the expensive phones.

If they were, Samsung's business model would be broken.

On Amazon:

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.

iPhones are even more expensive than flagship Android phones. iPhone users tend to use Macs which are even more expensive than their Windows counterparts.

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.

"iPhone users tend to use Macs"

Given the relative numbers of iPhones and Macs sold that seems unlikely.

> iPhones are even more expensive than flagship Android phones.

Even thought they are barely really worth it, thats simply wrong.

The iPhone 6s costs here in the EU 739€ in its smallest config, the 6s Plus 849€. (and many will opt for the 64GB option as 16GB isn't sufficient for most)

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.

My last statement was rather a opinion yes. Mostly based on the fact that i barely notice a difference since my dual core nexus for me 3 generations ago. My current phone has a 2k screen what barely makes sense on that size, a 14MP camera which is grainy as fuck, 4 cores with about 2.something Ghz each, 2 of which are off nearly all the time because who needs 4 cores?. I use it for browsing and SMS ...

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)

The point that I'm trying to make is not which OS or company is better, the thread is about Apple making more money with the app store and why that is so.

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.