While Android users like touting the market share argument in the superiority battle between Android and iOS, this year's Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday sales give iOS users another weapon in their arsenal.
Analysis by IBM shows iOS users drove more than one-fifth of all Thanksgiving Day sales and more than one-fourth of all Black Friday sales, a far cry from the 5.6 percent and 6.9 percent of sales made by users on Android on each day.
The numbers were crunched via IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark, which collects data from over 800 retail websites and 8,000 brands across 35,000 engagements. It does not collect how much sales were generated all in all.
However, it does provide insight into how iOS and Android users are using their mobile devices. On Nov. 27, Apple users spent an average of $118.57 for each order, marking a 24.5 percent difference with the $95.25 spent on average by users buying with their Android devices.
The same trends continue into Friday, with iOS users spending $127.34 for each order while Android users spent $101.82 per order.
Apple users also accounted for more than one-third, or 35.7 percent of online traffic to all websites covered in the study. Android users, on the other hand, only drove 15.9 percent of traffic.
On Black Friday, the same thing happened, although both iOS and Android users used their devices slightly less than on Thursday. iOS drove 31.8 percent of traffic, while Android users accounted for only 14.5 percent.
IBM chalks this up to Apple users having more disposable income to spend during the holiday shopping rush.
"Apple has a strong hold on online shopping," says Jay Henderson, director of IBM Smarter Conference. "iPhone and iPad buyers tend to be slightly more affluent and more comfortable with technology."
IBM also notes that half of online traffic came from mobile devices, with Thanksgiving Day seeing 52.1 percent of traffic and Black Friday 46.7 percent from mobile, indicating that consumers are becoming more comfortable and technologically savvy when it comes to using their coupons and rebates online.
Also interesting to note are the differences in the way people use their smartphones and tablets. While smartphones drove more than double the traffic coming from tablets on both days, more people are actually buying on their tablets. Thursday shows tablet users accounting for 17.9 percent of sales as opposed to the 14.4 percent of sales coming from smartphone users. Friday also saw the same with tablets driving 14.3 percent of online sales and smartphones 11.7 percent.
While mobile continues to grow even in the e-commerce industry, IBM also stresses that the desktop, which accounts for 47.6 percent of traffic on Thursday and 53.1 percent on Friday, is certainly not dead. Furthermore, desktop accounted for 67.7 percent and 73.9 percent of sales on each day, with users spending 17 to 19 percent more than mobile shoppers.
