Papermill Android Stats

Some interesting stats from Papermill (an Instapaper Android app).  It seems the Galaxy Nexus is overly represented when compared to handset sales figures (unless a lot more of these things are being sold than I am aware).  As this is a paid app (as the Papermill developer notes) it suggests high end Android handset owners are more willing to pay for apps.  Perhaps these people can be more likened to iPhone owners and that the generalisations about people not paying for Android apps is more representative of people purchasing budget handsets which are used more as a premium dumb phone than an actual smart phone.  Due to their price, they are likely to represent a disproportionate amount of the Android ecosystem.  

That leads onto two arguments.  Is the Android smartphone (i.e. being used as a smartphone and not just a phone) not as popular yet as the figures suggest?  Are the issues of fragmentation overly speculated?

On the popularity front, I can only see a complete iPhone domination here in Sydney, Australia.  And of the non-tech types who own Android handset, the majority are simply using the included software and have hardly ever touched the store.  They have Facebook apps, Twitter apps, a camera and a browser pre-installed.  This fulfils most people’s needs (did I mention they make phone calls too?).

On the fragmentation front, I can only see this as a talking point among technology obsessed types (usually pushing a pro-Apple agenda).  The majority of people buying a phone are satisfied with the way it works on the day they buy it.  They aren’t looking for updates to it, they just use it.  And while there were app support issues when moving from version 1.X to 2.X, the SDK seems to be built up and consistent enough now for this to not be an issue.  

1 month ago  /  0 notes  /  Source: papermill.me