“With the Black Friday weekend now behind us, analysts and market researchers are crunching numbers to determine how many billions Americans spent on the annual sales bonanza,” Clare O’Connor reports for Forbes. “Some retailers and brands fared far better than others on the biggest shopping day of the year, based on both data and customer sentiment.”
“Apple’s iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini were among the top-selling gadgets of the weekend, according to software firm Adobe’s data,” O’Connor reports. “What’s more, the Cupertino, Calif. brand outsourced its Black Friday marketing efforts to Target, Best Buy, et al. (On Thanksgiving Day at the former, an iPad was sold every second on average, according to a Target press release.)”
“Not only are shoppers buying Apple products, but they’re using them to make purchases, which should interest a company that’s been trying to push its Apple Pay digital wallet for over a year,” O’Connor reports. “Of the estimated $905 million in purchases via mobile devices this Black Friday, about 75% were made on iOS using iPhones and iPads, according to Adobe.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s certainly good to see iPads flying off the shelves!
Regarding iOS dominating in mobile purchases, as we explained over three years ago:
Android is pushed to users who are, in general:
a) confused about why they should be choosing an iPhone over an inferior knockoff and therefore might be less prone to understand/explore their devices’ capabilities or trust their devices with credit card info for shopping; and/or
b) enticed with “Buy One Get One Free,” “Buy One, Get Two or More Free,” or similar ($100 Gift Cards with Purchase) offers.Neither type of customer is the cream of the crop when it comes to successful engagement or coveted demographics; closer to the bottom of the barrel than the top, in fact. Android can be widespread and still demographically inferior precisely because of the way in which and to whom Android devices are marketed. Unending BOGO promos attract a seemingly unending stream of cheapskate freetards just as inane, pointless TV commercials about robots or blasting holes in concrete walls attract meatheads and dullards, not exactly the best demographics unless you’re peddling muscle building powders or grease monkey overalls.
Google made a crucial mistake: They gave away Android to “partners” who pushed and continue to push the product into the hands of the exact opposite type of user that Google needs for Android to truly thrive. Hence, Android is a backwater of second-rate, or worse, app versions that are only downloaded when free or ad-supported – but the Android user is notoriously cheap, so the ads don’t sell for much because they don’t work very well. You’d have guessed that Google would have understood this, but you’d have guessed wrong. Google built a platform that depends heavily on advertising support, but sold it to the very type of customer who’s the least likely to patronize ads.
iOS users are the ones who buy apps, so developers focus on iOS users. iOS users buy products, so accessory makers focus on iOS users. iOS users have money and the proven will to spend it, so vehicle makers focus on iOS users. Etcetera. Android can have the Hee Haw demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth. – MacDailyNews, November 26, 2012
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s iOS again leads in mobile advertising revenue – November 3, 2015
Two big reasons why Google (Alphabet Inc.) might not survive the decade – November 3, 2015
Apple iPhone owns over 90% of smartphone profits, so why do others even bother fighting over Apple’s scraps? – October 8, 2015
Apple’s iPhone owns 92% of smartphone industry’s profits – July 13, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
Regarding MDN’s take…
While there are certainly those users that fit in the categories described:
a) There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being in those camps.
b) It completely ignores the users who buy Android, precisely for the reason that they are not ties to any one company on all aspects of the ecosystem.
Hit enter too soon…
Agree with Google’s crucial mistake, as described in the MDN take.
apple cynic,
Very true. However, being in those camps means that those people are not so likely to buy apps, they want free apps with free songs, and free everything else… Not people who spend much money.
And it does not ignore Android, but which android out of the hundreds of os’s out there. Tweaked or not tweeted, just who do you try to support.
Example. Take a new iPhone and a similar android phone.
Wait 1 year then try to sell… The iPhone sells for 85 -90% of its original price and the android sells for 30 of its original price. Wait 3 years and you cannot give the android phone away. 🙁
We don’t disagree (I didn’t even consider resale value). Bottom line, there’s nothing wrong with being ‘frugal’ (wish I was). That’s entirely based on the consumer’s value proposition.
There is a vast population (myself included) that insists on an ecosystem with the broadest possible choice of vendors from all aspects of the ecosystem. Yes, the OS is the constant that ties it all together.
My own store channel checks revealed Beats products, ipads, watches and phones were extremely popular….
It’s not often that retailers discount Apple products so when they do it is usually a major traffic generator for the brick and mortar retailers……
Now back to the CnBc narrative——-Apple is dooooomed with no products for Christmas……
Whilst an iPad sold every second sounds fantastic when you do the math it is not so exciting:
60 sec x 60 minutes x 24 hours = 86,400 seconds
Now if 10 iPads were sold very second then I would be impressed.
I wonder what the sale rate was on Black Friday and not TG day.
They should have called the iPad Pro the Apple Personal TV Retina and secured a couple new streaming networks for it, given it all the AppleTV apps, let It hand off back and forth with Mac and AppleTV, commented on how it runs iOS as well, and declared it the future of television and the living room dead. World would have gone nuts.