Black Friday Sales Show Phone vs. Tablet, iOS vs. Android Differences

IBM has published a detailed report on Black Friday online sales that provides an intriguing snapshot of growing mobile web usage.

Unsurprisingly, mobile traffic was up 34 percent from last year. Furthermore, sales from mobile devices were up 43 percent, indicating that a larger fraction of mobile traffic resulted in a purchase.

Phones Lead Visits, Tablets Lead Sales

The data also shows key differences in tablet and smartphone behavior, as well as Android vs. iOS behavior.

Phones were the source of almost 25% of all traffic, but only 1.4% of visits from phones converted to sales. Tablets created fewer visits—about 14% of all traffic—but converted to sales at three times the rate of visits from phones. As a result, tablets created twice as many sales as phones.

Sales from Apple Devices Dwarf Android

Even though Android devices outnumber Apple’s iOS-based iPhone and iPad, people don’t seem to use them nearly as much.

Traffic from iOS devices accounted for 28.2% of all online traffic, more than double the 11.4% from Android devices. Furthermore, a higher percentage of visits from Apple devices converted to sales, and the average sale amount was higher. As a result, iOS devices accounted for 18.1% of all online sales, vs. a mere 3.5% for Android.