CHART OF THE DAY: iOS Users Are Wealthier, But That Doesn't Explain The Monetization Gap

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A persistent, if often unspoken, belief in the developer community is that Android users are simply unwilling to spend money, the implication being that they are simply less wealthy than their iOS counterparts.

But are they really?

According to comScore, the answer is yes: a significantly higher proportion of U.S. iOS users have a household income over $100,000 — 41 percent, versus 24 percent of Android users.

But, given Android's larger installed base, the gap may not be as significant as it initially appears.

Using the latest comScore market share figures for smartphone operating systems, we can estimate there are some 68 million Android users in the U.S., meaning 16 million belong to households with incomes over $100,000, compared to 20 million iOS users in that bracket.

A four million-person gap indicates that iOS users on the whole might be a bit richer, but it's hardly evidence that Android users lack real spending power.

Instead, Android's monetization gap with iOS is likely being driven by flaws in the Android ecosystem itself, such as its fragmentation problem and the lack of a truly seamless payment system.

At last check, developers with both iOS and Android apps pulled in four times more revenue on their iOS properties.