Mobile banking solutions provider Malauzai — the name means “little monkey” in Cantonese — provides mobile services to 86 banks and credit unions ranging in size from $40 million to about $6 billion. What does all this mobile activity give them? Among other things, lots of data about mobile transactions.
To wit, Tom Shen, Malauzai’s CEO, shared the following regarding money transfers of mobile customers: the dollar amount of financial transfers on the Android platform is, on average, about 60% lower than on iOS devices. Further, as might be expected from this figure, Android-based accounts tend to be lower-value accounts with lower balances.
We surmise that at least one reason for this is that Apple devices tend to cost more than Android devices. In the three months that ended Jan. 31, an Android phone at Sprint cost an average of $95 compared to $147 for an iOS phone, according to Kantar Worldwide. Kantar reported that during the period the average Android price dropped “significantly.”
The implications of the demographic differences between Android and iOS users are important. We maintain that these differences predicate Android and iOS apps that have varying features and interfaces. Just as a 20-something needs different financial advice than a 60-something, so too should Android apps evoke a different experience and priority alternative financial to iOS apps.
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