back to article iPhone owners EARN MORE THAN YOU, says mobile report

The average iPhone app fanboi makes nearly double the mean US annual salary. So says research firm comScore, which claimed in its most recent mobile app report that owners of the gilded fruitphone pull 40 per cent more money on average than their Android-owning counterparts. According to the company, iPhone users haul and …

  1. ThomH

    I'm sure Silicon Valley is skewing it

    Salaries here being absurd and iPhones being abundant.

  2. Eddy Ito
    Holmes

    Uh, isn't this the whole point of making cheap Androids? It allows everyone to have a smartphone instead of just those wealthy enough for an iPhone so it's hardly a surprise that the average iPhoner makes more money.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      We see a different trend

      We gave the option of iPhone 5s, a galaxy S5, A nexus5, HTC m8, xperia z2 or a lumia 920 to all our eligible employees.

      Sales and marketing employees all went with the iphone

      Technical staff went with android (30% S5, others 20 odd percent eacb)

      Nobody want the lumia unsurprisingly.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could we use this data to find those who don't pay taxes?

    I wonder how they matched real income to phones... something the IRS should be interestrd in...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But once they've spent it on a JesusPhone

    they have less left than me.

  5. Corinne

    Hmm, from the (admittedly small) example of people entering & exiting my local JobCentre, it seems to be the opposite around my way. And going on friends and family evidence the higher income people seem to use android smartphones citing value for money for their required functionality, whereas the lower income tend more towards iPhones and quote hype to me as their reason for having them.

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      When I go to work in the morning there is a hell of a lot of people, judging by their clothes, who are definately not in the upper bracket. If anything I would suggest that many are in the lower bracket and would benefit more from improving their wardrobe or hairstyling rather than owning an iPhone.

      iPhone used as a status symbol , yes definately, but the status that they are portaying is the oppposite of what they imagine.

    2. Dig

      You forgot the celebrity factor.

      Don't forget all those high income pop-stars, footballers etc who will heavily skew the result as well. The average premier league footballer earns 1.6 million and I bet greater than 90% have Iphones (made up statistic alert).

      You and your friends may be in the higher income bracket but obviously not high enough to not worry about things like value for money.

      That being said, I have an Android device and my wife's carer and the carer's daughter both have IPhones.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ahh Corinne, did those nasty survey people (and survey after survey before theirs) get research results you don't like to hear? I know just make up irrelevant anecdotal evidence so you can feel better and more comfortable with your prejudices.

      1. Corinne

        Not quite sure where any prejudice comes into this, I don't even own a smart phone and currently have no preference which I'll eventually get when my existing mobile dies.

        I don't "make up" anecdotal evidence either, I was just commenting on what I'd noticed in my town (south east, bit of a crappy area) and what people I know have told me?

  6. Chris Miller

    Mean salaries

    can be distorted by a few high earners. Median salaries are generally more meaningful.

    1. Steven Raith
      Joke

      Re: Mean salaries

      A happy salary is better though.

      (apologies)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why?

    While my retirement income falls somewhere about the average iphone user's level I noted one phrase in your report, 'iPhone owners spend more time fondling their phones', why?

    Do they not have a life?

    What I want is a phone that does NOT need to be fondled. I'm too busy walking dogs, shopping, gardening, supporting a disabled child etc. all of which require hands, I cannot waste time folding a stupid phone. I want hands free operation, not some old dog phone that cries if it is not touched, fondled and admired.

    Perhaps that is why I still use an elderly Nokia with a blue tooth earpiece. No fondling or touching required.

    Shame no one makes anything nearly so good any more!

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Nuke
    Headmaster

    Writer paid per word?

    " the time it takes for Earth to go around the Sun "

    Thanks for using eleven words when one would have done.

    1. Gordon 11

      Re: Writer paid per word?

      Thanks for using eleven words when one would have done.

      Or perhaps he was practising for "Just a time it takes for my second hand to complete one revolution"?

      1. Khaptain Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Writer paid per word?

        @Gordon

        Mines takes two complete revolutions of the hour hand..

  9. John H Woods Silver badge

    In other news ...

    ... drivers of more expensive cars tend to be in a higher income bracket than those who drive similarly functional vehicles with a less premium brand. Puzzling.

    1. h3

      Re: In other news ...

      It is more puzzling than that though. Something costing £400 is available to anybody in the UK who wants one. (But yet treated like it is owning a Ferrari.)

    2. silent_count

      Re: In other news ...

      Next up, research shows that owners of the Diamond Crypto Phone (USD $1.25 mil a pop) have a higher average income than iPhone (around USD $600) owners.

  10. jake Silver badge

    The average iFad user's monthly bill

    Is payed by their parental units.

  11. DF118

    HIGH EARNERS MORE LIKELY TO OWN EXPENSIVE PHONE SHOCKER

    News at 11

  12. James Pickett

    There's a saying about money and sense that temporarily eludes me...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Like for like

    I paid 500 quid for a Galaxy S4 which was not very good at all for the money (I returned it after Flipboard started alerting me at 3am to finish setting it up and share stuff with friends). Mate paid 100 quid for some old Galaxy that is stuck forever on Gingerbread. If you compare like with like I don't see the iPhones as being particularly expensive, and the entire headache of crap support and needing to root it to get it up to date and fully functional goes away.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Like for like

      How exactly is it Android's fault if Flipboard is sending you alerts at 3 am? If I had an app doing that, I'd disable the alerts (as I have done for most apps) or delete the app.

      I installed Flipboard on my iPhone several years ago when it was a hot new iOS app everyone was raving about, played around it with a bit, and never touched it again. It has never bugged me about not being set up, because it isn't allowed to send me any sort of alerts.

      1. jonathanb Silver badge

        Re: Like for like

        It is Samsung's fault for making it very difficult to get rid of and for having it set up by default to allow alerts at 3am.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Like for like

          Or the fault of someone buying an Android phone that doesn't use "pure" Android, but instead lets the OEM and/or carrier push stuff on them.

          Apple sure got this part right when they pushed around AT&T and their success forced everyone else into line to agree that they had no control over the OS, or even sending out updates for the OS.

  14. Unicornpiss
    Flame

    Most likely because it's perceived as a status symbol

    I think that what would mostly account for this would be that people that are better off have more disposable income to spend on "status symbols", which is what Apple's powerful marketing has made i-Stuff in a lot of peoples' eyes, not because somehow people that are better off financially have made a smarter choice somehow using the same "wisdom" that has gotten them "further" in life.

    As someone who supports iPhones in an Enterprise environment, and who has had 3 generations of Android devices for personal use, IMHO, Android's functionality blows away anything currently available from Apple. And if you've never had the joy of dealing with Apple's customer service to get a locked device unlocked, let's just say you don't want to.

    And I'm sure I can vouch for the countless Sysadmin/support folks here in saying that a higher income does emphatically NOT mean that the person in question is in any way more tech-savvy or more intelligent in general than the "rest". Seriously, a lot of affluence can be attributed more to good luck and a somewhat diminished set of core scruples rather than skill or some sort of uber-worthiness. For every executive that has rightfully earned his or her position (and to be fair, people at the board level are generally intelligent and reasonable people), there are 10 more managers just below that level that practically need a keeper, and that if I asked them the time of day, I'd check my watch before believing them.

  15. Tapeador

    I saw someone

    Using a Vertu phone the other day. A leather-coated Nokia s40 machine. Similar waste of money on a phone with lesser functionality than what's cheaper.

  16. Nameless Faceless Computer User

    iPhone owners are smarter, better looking, better educated, and have more fun than Android users.

    Survey sponsored by Apple Inc.

  17. rototype

    It seems to me

    A bit like Apple may have 'sponsored' this research in an effort to say "Look! Buy one of our phones and you'll earn more money" - and unfortunately a lot of gullible people are likely to fall for it.

    Surprisingly we don't hear much about Bleckbarry any more....

  18. Roj Blake Silver badge

    Obvious

    Rich people buy expensive things.

    Who'd have thought it?

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