The battle of the two major mobile operating systems in the world portrays some interesting statistics. Developers want to build apps that have good user engagement. A report by Localytics can help in this regard.
What Does Localytics Say?
According to Localytics, Android scores over iOS when it comes to app retention. Localytics tracks the app popularity and usage in both Apple and Android devices. Specifically, Localytics analyses the usage of an app from one to eleven times or more.
In the past four years or so, Localytics state that apps that have been just used once have decreased significantly and only 16% of Android apps have been used once. The number of iOS apps that have been used just once rest at 23%.
On the bright side, Localytics state that apps that are used time and often (more than 11 times) have increased significantly. In case of Android devices the increase has been from 34% to 45% while for iOS device from 34% to 36%. The iOS app engagement increase has been smaller.
How Did Localytics Determine The Usage?
For determining the number of times an app was used, Localytics calculated the number of times an app was downloaded in the third quarter of a year and then used by March 15 of the following year.
So why is Android performing better when it comes to app engagement? The reasons can be various. Localytics think that iOS users might be suffering from an app overload but then that isn’t likely the sole cause as Android devices have nearly the same number of apps as iOS. The more likely reason is that Android devices have a number of form factors and are available in different screens and sizes, suitable more to the app experience. What’s more, Android apps have a freemium model and more free apps can be downloaded from the Android market, which can be yet another reason.
The last reason seems more valid as according to a report by Monetate, iOS still is a forerunner when it comes to higher monetization and sales. Monetate analyzed random samples of over 7 billion online shopping experiences from various countries including UK and US. True, Android is closing the eCommerce sales and monetization gap now but still lags behind. Apple’s iPad’s seem to be doing comparatively well with the highest revenue at $160 per order. Tablets in fact seem to do better in comparison to smart phones with the Kindle Fire too having around $122 per order. Android tablets give revenue of around $107 per order. iPhone average order size was around $118, the best when it comes to smart phones. Android phones gave an average of $112 per order while Windows phones give around $101 per order.
With the statistics it does seem that having apps for tablets sure seem the best bet. However, when it comes to smart phones, the question is, does it really matter for app developers to think twice when it comes to designing apps for smart phones?
