Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) users may be paying more per app in the App Store, but they’re no happier with them than Android users, according to a study conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. His team examined the top 200 apps—both paid and free—on iOS and Android and found that the user ratings on both of them were about the same.
Measuring app customer satisfaction on Apple, Android
According to Munster, there was a virtual tie between customer satisfaction of apps on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS platform and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android platform. He noted a very slight edge from Android users, but overall, the 112 apps they found which are on both iOS and Android had an average 4.28 rating among users of Android devices and 4.16 among users of Apple devices.
One area of significant difference noted by Munster was the greater number of reviews for paid apps on Apple devices. He recorded 6.1 million of them, compared to 3.4 million on Android. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Android had more reviews on free apps. Munster’s team noted 61.9 million, compared to 26.7 million on iOS. Munster noted that since Apple users buy more paid content on their devices than Android users do, this may be why the difference is so big.
Apple / Android fight shifts to services
According to Munster, the next big fight between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS platform and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android platform is going to be services. He says Apple’s Siri is locked in battle with Google Now for dominance in the world of digital personal assistances. He says there may be other features getting involved too, however.
His recent test of both digital assistance suggested that both of them have about equal ability to understand and answer the questions posed by users. However, he pointed to other features which differentiate Apple and Android devices. For example, Google’s OK Google Now voice activation feature could influence consumers to opt for an Android device, while those interested more in biometric security may opt for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s TouchID fingerprint scanner.
Munster continued his push for Apple to move into the payments business with a platform of its own. Once again, he renewed his comments about expecting to see progress in this area early in the current calendar year. He called a payments platform Apple’s “next shot at a game changing service unique to iOS.”
