It’s no secret that more and more users of mobile devices prefer Android over everything else, but it also appears that more of us use Facebook on our devices compared to well… everyone else. I know you’re all slightly perplexed at where I am going, so let me explain— the Facebook app is no doubt a mainstay on mobile devices everywhere… regardless of what mobile OS the app is on. However— it appears there are more Facebook for Android users than Facebook for iPhone users. In fact– research indicates Facebook’s Android user count is growing much faster than its iPhone user base, despite the Facebook app being found on a lower percentage of Android devices. Through some raw data compiled by Benedict Evans, data shows that since September 2011, Facebook for Android had a 66 million monthly active user count (MAU) and Facebook for iPhone had a 91 million MAU. Moving to November 2012, Android had grown to a 192.8 million MAU while iPhone only had a 147.2 million MAU. The data shows that Facebook’s Android users helped Facebook reach a total of 604 million mobile users by the end of Q3 2012, which is tremendous.
As exciting as the findings are, there are some things to note. While there are more Facebook Android users than iPhone users, there are more Facebook iOS users overall when the iPad user base is taken into account. As it stands, there is a 48 million MAU for iPad users, which brings the total to 195.2 million MAU, just slightly more than the overall Android user base. In addition, the study could not take into account the integration that may not have been taken advantage of with iOS6 users, so the number could very well dwarf the number of Android users.
Still, the fact that Android users are not only adopting Facebook mobile at a faster rate, but are also contributing Facebook’s overall growth is certainly nothing to sneeze at. It will be interesting to see how the numbers grow as Facebook continues to get better and better for the Android platform.
source: TechCrunch