iOS users more valuable than their Android counterparts, but the gap is closing

When it comes to mobile spending, iOS users have always been seen as more valuable than their Android counterparts. But the gap between the two platforms is closing.

Research carried out by Moovweb based on a sampling of 355 million mobile sessions from a subset of the customer e-commerce sites powered by the firm shows that difference in e-commerce conversion rates between Android and iOS decreased by 75 percent year-over-year in Q1.

Currently the Android-iOS conversion rate gap stands at 5 percent, which means that shoppers using Android devices are now converting at almost the same rate as their iPhone counterparts.

Back in Q1 of 2013 this figure stood at over 30 percent.

"Another interesting way to look at this data," writes Moovweb on its blog, "is that whereas in Q1 2014 an iPhone user was 25% more likely to make a purchase than an Android phone user, this year an iPhone user is only 6% more likely to buy."

Another metric that's closing is revenue per session, with the gap now at 9 percent, down from 15 percent during the year-ago quarter.

"To frame the difference in spend between Android and iOS users a bit differently," Moovweb continues, "in 2014, for every dollar an Android phone user spent, an iPhone user spent $1.18. Today that gap has shrunk. For every dollar an Android user spends, an iPhone user spends $1.10."

When broken down based on device, some Android devices - the Moto X, HTC One M8, and Droid Razr - are already beating all iPhones when it comes to conversion rate.

Whether Android overtakes iOS remains to be seen, but the closing gap is a clear indication that Android users can no longer be treated as second-class netizens.