Online shoppers are increasingly using mobile devices to buy gifts for the holidays, according to IBM's 2012 Holiday Benchmark Report, and those shoppers overwhelmingly prefer Apple's iPad and iPhone to do so. Black Friday purchases via mobile devices accounted for nearly one quarter of all sales for the busy holiday shopping day, up from 14.3 percent in 2011 and 5.2 percent in 2010. And, according to further analysis by Asymco, 77 percent of all those mobile purchase originated from an iOS device.
"The iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smart phone, reaching nearly 10 percent of [all] online shopping," IBM noted in a press release. "This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and Android [at] 5.5 percent."
Asymco's Horace Dediu crunched the numbers further, showing that the share of online shoppers using Android devices has stalled, while the iPhone and iPad have grown significantly.
"Two years ago the iPad was trailing Android usage but this year it was more than twice Android usage," Dediu wrote. "Curiously, the iPhone seems to also be pulling ahead of Android."
Android has grown significantly in smartphone market share over the last couple of years, with the total number of Android users eclipsing the number of iPhone users. The iPad still owns the tablet market, though several recent challengers—such as the Nexus 7 and 10, and the Kindle Fire HD—have shown some early promise. But even as more Android users come online, fewer of them appear to be using the devices for online shopping.
"The bigger question is what is causing phone users to behave differently based on the devices they own," according to Dediu. "The phone market is more mature and has had several years of competition to be able to discern differences in platforms. The pattern is pretty clear with respect to Android: engagement is down as ownership is up. This pattern has not exhibited itself with iPhone, even though it has had a longer time in market."
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