Apple Users Seem ‘More Engaged’ Than Android Users As Banks Find Not All Mobile Is Equal

By John Stewart

While payments executives are abuzz about how mobile devices are transforming the business, they are slowly coming to realize that not all mobile users—and certainly not all mobile devices—are equal when it comes to such metrics as the average value of payments and rate of usage.

The latest evidence of this comes from Malauzai Software, an Austin, Texas-based vendor of mobile-banking solutions. In a result that may well highlight one reason bankers and retailers grew so excited about the launch of the iPhone-based Apple Pay service in October, a report from Malauzai this week indicates users of Apple devices log in more often and make higher-value money transfers than do users of Android phones and tablets.

Users of devices running Apple Inc.’s iOS mobile-device software log in to mobile banking on average 4.2 times per week, compared to 3.4 times for Android users, according to the latest report, which is based on November data for more than 245 financial institutions, 266,000 active users, and 4.5 million logins.

Users of iOS devices users “seem to be more engaged” than Android users, says a release from Malauzai discussing the report.

Moreover, the average transfer value for iPhone users is $443, nearly 50% higher than the $297 average transferred by owners of Android phones. Malauzai says this result continues a trend it has seen in previous monthly reports. It notes a possible explanation is that iPhone users generally maintain higher balances.

But differences also occur between types of mobile device as well, not merely between operating platforms. In a surprising result, Malauzai finds that iPad users are less inclined to use their devices to make remote check deposits than are smart-phone users. Users of iPads on average make 2.5 deposits per month, against 2.8 for smart-phone users. And their average deposit is 25% lower.

“This is a surprise because with other forms of money movement, such as transfers and bill payments, iPad users’ average values are about 30% to 40% higher,” the company notes.

One possible explanation for the lower deposit activity could be the awkwardness of using a tablet to make images of checks for deposit, a process that seems more natural with a phone. This “is deterring some level of usage,” Malauzai says. This does not explain the lower average deposit value, however.

In other results, the company also found that a relatively new technology called Picture Pay, which lets users pay bills by imaging them to automatically populate payee data, is now accounting for enough payment activity that it nearly equals standard mobile bill payment. Picture Pay users are paying 2.9 bills monthly, compared to 3.1 for users of conventional mobile bill payment requiring manual entry of biller information.

In addition, some 80% of iPad users log off from banking sessions when finished, compared with 35% of smart-phone users. The company says this disparity likely stems from the fact that iPads are typically shared devices, unlike handsets.