IPhone share hit 36% in U.S., fell to 20% in France

Despite the strength of the iPhone brand, there's still a significant chunk of the market that really "doesn't care" and just wants a phone that works. Sure they'd be happy to have a camera and all the rest of what a smart phone offers but they're cautious about increasing their monthly bill with data charges and, first and foremost, just want a phone. You can sell this type of consumer an Android phone quite easily, even if they came into your store asking for an iPhone.

Meanwhile Apple made the "mistake" of pushing their vision of user experience all the way through consumer. To do this they dictated terms to telcos on how they distribute iPhones, and broke long established conventions built up with Nokia, Motorola, Sony Erikson and others about the distribution process, and questioned the role of the telco in that process. That left telcos scared of a future where Apple is their dominant supplier. So they fixed it.

IMO that's where these numbers are coming from.

Owners of the iPhone can be much different than Android owners, think of them as your premium buyer. They are more apt to pay for an app but their expectations are much higher.

Owners of Android devices can belong within a huge range of factors involving buying habits. Think of them as your mainstream audience. Since there are so many variations of devices and their price points, it is only natural that there would be differences within that audience as to who pays and who doesn't.

For instance, I own an LG Optimus V. I went with that because the phone was cheap and the monthly rate was much more reasonable than from the big carriers. It serves my needs quite nicely and I am quite happy with the choice. I have yet to purchase an app for it. Not that I never would, if the app is useful enough I would pay for it. It's just I've never found an app I really needed badly enough to buy. Then again, I only have a minimum of apps installed (mostly ad driven) because I'm probably not your typical example.

By the way, the phone is rooted with CM7 installed to give an idea of where I stand technical-wise.

I would wonder if there's some sort of correlation between the Mac and PC software development and marketing efforts. For some reason I feel a Mac user is more apt to buy a software package while a PC user would explore cheaper, or even free, options since so much of that is available in that market.

iPhone = premium device

Android = premium, medium and lower end devices.

I know many people that have cheap Android phones and never buy apps. I also know a few people (including myself) that own a top end Android device and buy a lot of apps (I have paid for 63 atm). Of course it not a rule (some people with lower end devices buy a lot of apps) but I think that is obvious that people with more money to spend on a phone are more prone to spend money on apps for the phone.

So just price then.

Also have any phones actually been banned from sale in the US yet? I thought HTC had time to change their product.