Abstract
Android and iPhone devices account for over 90 percent of all smartphones sold worldwide. Despite being very similar in functionality, current discourse and marketing campaigns suggest that key individual differences exist between users of these two devices; however, this has never been investigated empirically. This is surprising, as smartphones continue to gain momentum across a variety of research disciplines. In this article, we consider if individual differences exist between these two distinct groups. In comparison to Android users, we found that iPhone owners are more likely to be female, younger, and increasingly concerned about their smartphone being viewed as a status object. Key differences in personality were also observed with iPhone users displaying lower levels of Honesty-Humility and higher levels of emotionality. Following this analysis, we were also able to build and test a model that predicted smartphone ownership at above chance level based on these individual differences. In line with extended self-theory, the type of smartphone owned provides some valuable information about its owner. These findings have implications for the increasing use of smartphones within research particularly for those working within Computational Social Science and PsychoInformatics, where data are typically collected from devices and applications running a single smartphone operating system.
Highlights
One in two adults own a smartphone and this increases to around two thirds in developed countries including the UK1
Hypotheses While this research aims to understand if the smartphone a person owns provides any valuable information about the user, recent theoretical frameworks concerning brand personality and the effects of brand motivation on subsequent behaviour allow for clear hypotheses to be made between those who are likely to use an iPhone or Android smartphone device and we predicted that iPhone users will be will be younger, more extraverted and open in comparison to those who use Android devices[16,17]
Here we demonstrate for the first time that an individual’s choice of smartphone operating system can provide useful clues when it comes to predicting their personality and demographic characteristics
Summary
One in two adults own a smartphone and this increases to around two thirds in developed countries including the UK1. Two systems continue to dominate the marketplace, with iPhone and Android smartphones accounting for over 90% of all smartphones sold worldwide[3]. Both engage in extensive, but very different advertising campaigns[4]. No empirical investigation has yet systematically considered the existence or accuracy of these claims. This is surprising because the current 50/50 market split provides an interesting divide in which to test how existing theoretical constructs that pertain to the self may help explain how an individual aligns themselves with a specific smartphone operating system
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