Majority Of iPhone & Android Users Pay Carriers Over $100 A Month

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Is your bill over $100 a month? If so, you’re in the majority of iPhone and Android users.

Want to know why a carrier like Sprint is willing to promise Apple almost $16 billion to get the iPhone on their network, or why carriers put up with paying astronomical subsidies just to get a single iPhone customer on their network?

As usual, it all comes down to the crisp, president-branded cabbage. According to a new study, almost 60% of iPhone users spend more than $100 a month on their wireless plan, compared to only 53% of Android users.

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Says All Things D:

Almost 60 percent of the iPhone users CIRP polled during October-December 2012 spent more than $100 per month on their wireless plan, with 10 percent spending $200 or more. Just 6 percent spent $50 or less; for Android users in that category, the percentage was double. And only 53 percent of Android users fell into the “over $100 per month” category, with 7 percent landing in the “over $200 per month” category.

It’s a subtle distinction, of course, but it does show fairly conclusively that iPhone users make more money for carriers than Android, Windows or even Blackberry customers.

However, one shouldn’t count out statistical anomalies in this data: almosy all iPhone users are on regular carrier plans, while a lot of Android and even Blackberry customers are on budget plans. That’s going to statistically weight iPhone average plan prices closer to the middle.

Another question here is how much the rise of shared family data plans has fiddled with the math here. How much do you pay per month for your carrier? At my home, we pay around $160 a month, but that’s for both my iPhone and my girlfriend’s iPhone, with 4GB of shared data between us. I’d argue that breaks us down to the under-$100 a month category, but I bet carriers don’t look at it that way.

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  • Matzpod

    Wow. I live in Germany and I’m an iPhone 4S user. I pay €9,95/month for 100min/100sms and unlimited data. There’s clearly something wrong with US carriers.

    • http://twitter.com/ScotHibb ScotHibb

      In the US most of us got rid of our land-lines years ago and only use our cells because you can’t find a location that doesn’t have coverage. My Sprint unlimited plan also covers unlimited data/everything when roaming, including Canada and Alaska. $149/month for two iPhone 5′s is pretty good. I would BLOW through 100 minutes of talk time in a week easy. And with data, easily blow through 5GB within days. Plus my company pays me $75/month toward my bill so they don’t have to buy me a company crappy Blackberry (I hate carrying two phones). And as far as texts, I’ve gone over 200 today already (get Twitter feed, etc via texts)!

  • disqus_loaZ8OssAC

    $13/mo. $150/calls, 1GB/data. I live in Australia, there are more options here.

    • http://twitter.com/ScotHibb ScotHibb

      That would only cover my calls and data for about 2 days. With 4G LTE I keep my Wi-Fi off…

  • cb2504

    Ouch! There is one thing that is better value for money in the UK then! I’m paying £25/month (approx. $40) for 2000mins, 5000 Text and UNLIMITED data. It’s truely unlimted as well, none of this “unlimited means 5Gb…” Last month useage was around 200Gb

  • http://twitter.com/ScotHibb ScotHibb

    I’ve been with Sprint for 12 years, and have lowered my bill or added new services at no extra charge every 1 (now every 2) years when I re-up my contract. I pay $149/month for complete unlimited “everything” for TWO iPhones. I can’t wait until Jailbreak for iOS 6 on iPhone 5 is released, wireless tethering on 4G LTE will rule to have back! The only thing that sucks is that Sprint doesn’t offer a package deal for our iPads…again, not a problem once I can setup a WiFi hotspot with my iPhone…

  • http://twitter.com/ScotHibb ScotHibb

    I just realized I clicked through to the ANDROID site…oops, Android sucks, I’m a Cult of MAC!

  • Nick V

    I am on T-Mobile, using Pre-Paid, and I have unlimited everything for $70/month. Nexus 4 rocks on T-Mobile, and I am getting speeds in the 20+MBs range.

    I will never go back to subsidies again.

  • tjin

    100min Outgoing, Free Incoming, 550 SMS, 12GB Data for only $40+ here in Singapore. Dang, and I thought I was paying through the nose already. Suddenly grateful for what I’ve got…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=90400190 Jessie Robyn Yelle

    Some of the smaller carriers are great (I pay $40/month for unlimited data, global texting, and calling for north america as well as voice mail and call display included). But smaller carriers don’t have coverage in a lot of places, and often don’t carry high-end smartphones or the iPhone.
    Carriers that do, know that they can charge whatever they want. Talk and text plans are never above $40, but the minute you add even 100 megs of data, you are paying north of $50 per month. Carriers know that they can charge you whatever they want for data, because it’s what we’re using now more than ever on a smartphone.

  • gingerkid926

    I’m on Sprint’s Everything Plus Family 1600, there are 3 iPhone 4s’s and 1 GSII on the plan and we pay $200 after taxes. Unlimited data and text, and pretty much unlimited talk (unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile to ANY carrier ANY time). We barely touch our minutes, and service here is WAY better than T-Mobile and AT&T, similar to Verizon.

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Android, as well as our sister site, Cult of Mac. He has written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his charming inamorata and two tiny budgerigars punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous perverts. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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