LONDON: There are some significant differences in how owners of Android and iOS smartphones and tablets use their devices and experience advertising, according to a new study.

An analysis of data from Mediatel's Connected Screens survey – which tracks how consumers use multiple digital screens in their lives – revealed that iOS users have a much higher frequency of exposure to video advertising on their smartphone/tablet compared with Android users.

The media information business found that 39% of iPhone users saw video ads almost every day compared to just 25% of Android users. This gap was less pronounced on tablets, however, where 41% of iPad users saw video ads every day or most days, compared with 33% for Android users.

A similar picture emerged as regards static advertising: 39% of iOS users saw static ads most days, well ahead of the figure for Android users at 28%.

iPhone users were also far more likely to shop via their device, Mediatel reported: 57% had done so compared to 40% of Android users.

And 14% of iPhone users made a purchase on their device most day while only 9% of Android users did so, perhaps indicative of the growing use of Apple Pay.

Shoppers on tablets were more equally matched when it came to making daily purchases with their device (13% of iPad users vs 11% for Android users). But almost one half (46%) of Android tablet users never make purchases on their devices, compared to less than one in three iPad users.

Richard Marks, a contributor to the Connected Screens Analysis report, offered a number of possible reasons for these differences.

"It could be argued that perhaps iOS is an easier system on which to see ads and make payments, but it would seem that this e-commerce difference is more indicative of a tendency of iOS users to use their iPhone more frequently generally than Android users," he said.

"Indeed one is tempted to suggest that they are more committed to their phone per se than Android users – perhaps because they have invested more in it, or buy into the Apple ethos. If this is the case, it has a significant implication for mobile advertisers."

Data sourced from Mediatel; additional content by Warc staff