Android v iPhone: how the States split up

224 and 3.jpgPeople are fond of splitting the US up into those maps that show that the East and West coats think one thing but the mid-west and centre think the opposite. Democrat voters on the coasts, Republicans in the middle, latte drinkers on the coast, ole Joe’s home-brewed moonshine in the middle. Frequency of UFO visits, belief in gay marriage are other issues on which a marked difference in opinion can be seen. You get the gist, America can be divided up pretty easily.

Anyway there is now a new way to split up the States and make a nice map at the same time and that is by the penetration of differently branded smartphone Operating Systems: Android vs iPhone. Android had been edging into the iPhone’s supremacy, and though Apple’s handset is more popular overall, Android phones have overtaken iPhones in several key states. I don’t really know why but it does seem to be a middle-America vs the coasts split once again.

224 android map.jpg

Is this because the iPhone has a poncey coastal liberal look to it? It’s for hipsters and smooth-talking city creatives not the more traditional central states? A stereotype definitely encouraged by ads like this Motorola Droid one. Okay the Android/iPhone divide is not completely identical to the traditional centre/coast split, iPhones are more popular than Androids in Texas for example and there ain’t nothing poncey about Texas.

I’d like to see a map of Blackberry ownership as well. Probably superimposed on a map of UFO sightings.

Related: CES 2010: Dell dangle an Android slate in front of us and Android ad tells us: iPhones are stupid and girly

Anna Leach