A greater percentage of iPhone users (67.5 percent) use mobile apps for commerce compared to Android™ users (43.9 percent) in the Arbitron Mobile U.S. smartphone panel. iPhone users spend more time than Android users with mobile commerce apps (105.3 minutes/month vs. 87.6 minutes/month) and conduct more virtual shopping trips (35 sessions/month vs. 29.5 sessions/month.)

Mobile Commerce Apps
eBay is the mobile app used by the largest share of U.S. smartphone panelists—14.3 percent. eBay mobile cybershoppers used the app in 34.6 sessions for an average of one hour and 48 minutes in the month.

Passbook, the Apple iOS digital wallet app, was the number four mobile app, used by 8.1 percent of the Arbitron Mobile smartphone panelists. While among the top apps in terms of user penetration, Passbook, which serves as a portal to other mobile commerce apps, garnered far less average time in use and far fewer sessions than apps that include the ability to search for something to buy.  

Mobile Commerce Web Domains
Compared to mobile commerce apps, web domains are accessed, whether directly by browser or as a consequence of app usage, by a significantly larger share of U.S. smartphone panelists, but the time spent and the number of sessions each month with web domains are significantly smaller.

Amazon, the leading web domain for smartphone commerce, is accessed by 34.7 percent of U.S. smartphone panelists, compared to the Amazon Mobile app, which is used by 13 percent of the panel. The Amazon users spend far less time accessing the Amazon domain than with the Amazon app (19.8 minutes/month vs. 40.0 minutes/month for the mobile app). Amazon users also access Amazon via their smartphone browser far less often—5.7 average sessions/month vs. 10.9 average sessions for the Amazon mobile app.