Verizon vs. AT&T – Red States vs. Blue States

I’m continuously amazed at how many people are using the Prayer apps I wrote (Prayers to Share for Android and Christian Prayer Journal for the iPhone). The Android app now has over 11,000 active installs. I thought the rate of downloads and usage would taper off, but things are still growing at a rate where I’m starting to worry about my server. One of the best things about this app is how people continue to use it every day while most of my other apps get downloaded and removed shortly after when people get bored.

One thing I’ve been tracking is that while these two apps are essentially the same app, it’s MUCH more popular on Android than on the iPhone.

Android Market vs. iPhone App Store
Here’s a quick screenshot of the current Android Market stats:


Prayers to Share is getting between 250-500 downloads per day in the Android Market. But the same iPhone app gets 25-50 downloads per day through the App Store.

The 10x difference is no doubt due to ease of discoverability on the Android Market vs. the App Store. It’s a Top 20 Most Popular App in the Social Category of the Android Market and is easy for new users to find while it’s buried in the iPhone App store listings.

Red States vs. Blue States
But I had a funny conversation the other day about Verizon Red States and AT&T Blue States. It was probably a result of being hammered over the head by too many Verizon commercials, but more likely due to too much caffeine.

Here’s the gist of it:

“Those Verizon commercials with the Red and Blue maps remind me of Republican Red states and Democratic blue states.”

“If you actually look at the AT&T blue map in the commercial, it’s pretty sad. It looks like it’s just the coasts and major metropolitan areas.

There’s some truth to those commercials. People I know in NYC and the West Coast love their iPhones, but my friends in the midwest won’t even consider an iPhone because AT&T coverage is so poor near them. Not just 3G coverage, they have a bad perception of any AT&T coverage in their area.

Maybe that’s why Prayers to Share does better in devout Verizon Red States than wicked AT&T Blue States.

Well, there have been several prayers for God to end abortion from Android phones and one person even prayed for Obama to be shot.

Hmm, maybe I should just focus on pious Android apps for Red States since the amoral iPhone app market is pretty crowded.”

OK, maybe I should cut back on the caffeine.