A Phone Says More Than You Think

This is a post from Steve Schultz, COO of Pageonce.

Mark Twain said the clothes make the man. Today he might say it’s the mobile phone.

A mobile device says a lot more about you than you think. At Pageonce, we make it easy for over 3 million users to manage and control their cash and bills from the convenience of a mobile device. The team at Pageonce thought it would be interesting to slice aggregate user data to see how our users differ across the various mobile device platforms. The results are fascinating, and were recently picked up by The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog. I’d like to share a few data points from our findings.

First, Pageonce data shows that iPhone users leverage credit cards significantly more than Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile users. The average iPhone user has a 35% higher balance (this is carried balance plus news transactions plus any fees/charges) on their monthly credit card statement than the average Windows Mobile user. My first reaction: Wow, really!? This might mean that iPhone users have more debt. Or it could mean iPhone users simply run more expenses through their cards. Or maybe Android users are more conservative about using credit? Whatever the reason, I’m betting credit card companies would like to get their hands on more iPhone users.

Second, Pageonce data shows that Windows Mobile users have the highest mobile phone bills (this is the current charges plus any past due). The average Windows Mobile user has a 24.5% higher wireless bill than the average iPhone user. What? How can that be? I thought app- and data-obsessed iPhone users would have had the highest bills. I suspect Blackberry’s high proportion of business users account for its higher bills. Android and Windows Mobile users may have a higher proportion of family plans. I need to study it more, but it’s interesting data nonetheless. I’d love to hear your hypotheses and explanations.