Apple users are buying 61 percent more mobile applications and paying about 14 percent more per app, a recent report said.
The report by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, an analyst known for his bullish views on Apple's iOS, says that the average iOS owner will download 83 apps in 2011, a jump of 61 percent from 2010, and will pay an average $1.44 per app, according to Fortune. About 18 percent of the App Store's apps are paid.
The news coincides with another report from Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore, who writes in a note to investors that Apple users are unlikely to abandon the iOS because they have put in $100 worth of content on each device. Instead that $100 investment seems to keep them from jumping ship to Android, according to AppleInsider.
"This averages to (about) $100 of content for each installed device; suggesting switching costs are relatively high (not to mention the time required to port)," Whitmore wrote. "While Apple's best in class user experience is combined with these growing switching costs, the resulting customer loyalty is unparalleled."
The rise in app prices has more to do with the average iPad app being more expensive -- apparently the average Top 10 iPad app sells for $6.32, up 36 percent from $4.66 last year, AppleInsider reported.
Some took the news as another opportunity to point out that Android users seem to be painted as cheapskates, but there's no proof of that in the Piper Jaffray report. However, the argument that Apple users expect to invest money into their handheld and do so, thereby keeping them tied to and almost cultishly loyal to that platform, could explain a lot about Apple's customers.
