American iPhone owners spend more time tapping their touchscreens than Android users, according to a report released this week.

The study, which was carried out by Experian Marketing Services, found that, on average, Apple fans spend a total of one hour and 15 minutes a day doing something on their device. Android users, however, only spend 49 minutes a day.

Interestingly though, Experian’s report did find that those who own handsets running the Android operating system tend to spend more time making calls (28% of all usage) than iPhone users (22%). Across both platforms, voice calling is the most common activity, with an average of 26%.

Texting was close behind voice calling, accounting for 20% of activity – almost 12 minutes. This was closely trailed by social media and internet surfing, which represent 16% and 14% of usage respectively. For Android users, social media, web browsing and texting and were neck and neck at 16%.

Among iPhone users, 16% of smartphone usage is spent on social networks, and web browsing took up just 12%. Speaking about the contrasts between mobile operating systems, Experian’s marketing manager, John Fetto, said:

“Smartphone users may constantly debate which operating system is supreme, but we see clear differences between the ways consumers use their phone depending on the operating system that runs it.”

The fact that social media usage and internet browsing are slowly catching up with with talk and text time says a lot for the shifting views consumers have of their mobile devices. People are increasingly purchasing smartphones to satisfy content cravings, with the method of actually making a phone call having barely changed since mobile phones arrived. This change is being reflected with the big handset-related moves being made by both manufacturers and social media firms.

Graeme Parton

Graeme has experience creating content for online sources and for the radio, and at university he studied Multimedia Journalism.