Tech lovers always maintain that there are differences between Apple users and Android users. A new study from Arbitron Mobile, a provider of on-device software meters, has confirmed that there are, in fact, real differences between the two types of mobile device users.
The primary finding of their survey was the difference in usage of mobile gaming apps. In the month that their panel was monitored, iPhone users spent an average of 12 hours and 23 minutes using mobile gaming apps; whereas, Android users spent an average of eight hours and four minutes playing mobile gaming apps.
Although Scrabble has recently become popular amongst mobile gaming users, Arbitron Mobile found that Words with Friends remains the most popular mobile game overall (not just amongst word games).
Of Apple users, 26.1 percent played Words with Friends; of Android users, 16 percent played Words with Friends. Another Zynga word game, Scramble with Friends, was the second most popular game with Apple users; whereas, Angry Birds Star Wars was the second most popular game played by Android users.
For Apple users, places three through five were claimed by Temple Run, The Simpsons Tapped Out, and Draw Something, with 11.1 percent of users, 10.8 percent of users, and 10.6 percent of users, respectively. For these same places, Scramble with Friends (9.6 percent of users), Drag Racing (7.3 percent of users), and Fruit Ninja (6.3 percent of users) were favored by Android users.
Mobile gaming is not the only area in which users of these two platforms differentiate. Forrester Research found that “Apple’s iPhone app audience are generally younger and better off financially, while those on Android ten to be older and less moneyed.”
Such insights into these differences in smartphone users help developers to understand their target markets better, and they also help potential competitors to Android and Apple identify where gaps exist in the market.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
QUICK LINKS 
