Apple's iOS Has Once Again Decimated Android When It Comes To Data That Matters

Apple's mobile operating system is once again dominating Google's operating system when it comes to online shopping.

Adobe, which is tracking online shopping, reports the following: "iOS users drove four times as much mobile sales revenue as Android users, 79 and 21 percent respectively."

IBM's data produced similar findings:

• iOS vs. Android: iOS once again led the way in mobile shopping this holiday season, outpacing Android across three key metrics on Black Friday:
• Average Order Value: iOS users averaged $121.86 per order compared to $98.07 for Android users, a difference 24.3 percent.
• Online Traffic: iOS traffic accounted for 34.2 percent of total online traffic, more than double that of Android, which drove 15 percent of all online traffic.
• Online Sales: iOS sales accounted for 21.9 percent of total online sales, nearly quadruple that of Android, which drove 5.8 percent of all online sales.

This is important for a few reasons.

For years, people have talked about Apple's tiny market share when it comes to the phone market. Globally, Apple has 12% of the smartphone market, according to Gartner. Android has 82%. In the US, Apple has 42% of the market, and Android has 52%, according to comScore.

Market share is important because typically in tech, it's winner-take-all. The more people you have using your platform, the better you will do.

In theory, the more people use Android, the more developers and publishers will tailor their websites and their apps to Android. In theory, Apple's iPhone will be a second class citizen with second class apps. Eventually people will bail on the iPhone if it's offering a second class experience.

But, in practice, Android's market share advantage means nothing because iOS is more popular when it comes to usage, as demonstrated by these shopping data points. If you're making an app or a website, you want it to work best on iOS because that is where the most lucrative customers are. So, in practice, Apple gets the best apps and the best web experience because that's what makes sense for companies and developers.