If you live in a higher-income state, it’s likely you own an iPhone.
That’s according to new data out from internet marketing company WebpageFX, which analyzed data from 30 million mobile device users. The data showed that two-thirds of cell phone users have either an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy, with 45% of users preferring iPhones over Galaxy phones.
What’s most interesting about the data, though, is where these users live in the US. It turns out that there’s a slight correlation between income and phone brand – specifically, that states with higher mean incomes are more likely to have more iPhone users than Galaxy users, and states with lower mean incomes tend to use Galaxies more.
There’s a positive correlation between iPhone market share and high-income states…
…and the opposite happens when you look at Galaxy market share and mean income.
It's pretty interesting to see it on a map of the US:
Here, you can clearly see that some of the high-income states - like Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts - appear to heavily favor iPhone. In those states, iPhone has more than 50% of the market share. But in lower-earning states, like New Mexico and South Carolina, iPhone only has between 35% and 40% of the market share.
There are outliers, of course: Mississippi and Louisiana have two of the lowest median incomes in the nation, yet more than 50% of users prefer iPhones there.
So is the high cost of iPhones - an iPhone 7 Plus costs $769 - turning off lower-income people? Maybe so, but sometimes, a Galaxy isn't that much cheaper. Right now, a Galaxy S7 costs $694.99 if you pay upfront.
The difference, however, lies in the fact that Samsung offers Galaxy phones at several price ranges. You can buy a Galaxy J3 for $199, but a quick online search to buy even an iPhone 5s yielded... nothing.
For now, at least, the perception that one-percenters only use Phones remains true.