iOS owners analyzed: Most iPhone owners are single, most iPad users have pets
It's easy to learn how many iPads and iPhones have been sold -- sales figures are readily available. But this isn’t enough information for advertisers who need to know what type of demographic makes up their potential market. Research by Flurry helps to shine a light on the types of people who own different iOS devices.
A random sample of over 44,000 iOS device owners reveals that 72 percent have an iPhone and 28 percent an iPad. Plotted on a chart, the figures make for interesting reading but, as ever, the most intriguing results are to be found at the extremes.
Flurry's research found that more than 90 percent of people classified as being single in the study owned an iPhone, and therefore just under 10 percent of iPad owners were partnerless. Sports fans were far more likely to own an iPhone than an iPad, and just under 70 percent of users of Apple's tablet were pet owners. It appears that gambling is where the dividing line lies. Just under half of iOS device owners classed as Casino Gamers used an iPhone, while just over half of Card Game Players own one of Apple's phones.
The figures show that the iPad proves popular with bookworms, those interested or involved in education, and parents. iPhones are more popular with tech heads (perhaps no surprise there), but their portability means they are also loved by photography enthusiasts and people keen on health and fitness.
So how was the research done? Flurry categorizes people into a number of different Personas -- this seems reasonable enough. But the categorization is not done based on interviews, surveys, or other solid methods. Instead a person is assigned a Persona based on their app usage. Use a series of dating apps on your iPhone and you've probably been singled out as being, well, single. Use your iPad to track stocks and shares? Maybe you're a "business professional". But what about if you own an iPhone and an iPad? Flurry says "Those who own more than one device may not be assigned to the same Personas on all of their devices because their app usage patterns may not be the same across devices".
Other interesting results from the findings show that iPads are used most in the early evening -- probably when sitting in front of the TV -- and while iPhones are used around the same time, they start to prove more popular as the night wears on.
Full analysis, complete with enough graphs to keep even the most demanding statistics fans happy, can be found at the Flurry blog.
Photo Credit: D. Hammonds/
