What phone type are you?

Cellphone models are the new zodiac signs. They can tell people whether you are a party animal or the shy romantic who will never put out on the first date. But shallow typecasting aside, many of these stereotypes are being used by software companies to target the right users. 

It was a dinner at a posh Italian restaurant and the entrees had arrived. But they just sat there, ignored and turning cold, as two friends typed on their phones at autobahn speed as the third read out a passage from a book. It was a speed test of a different kind - which phone, an iPhone or a BlackBerry, typed faster and with more accuracy. The first level of the test was to type on their own phones and then swap them. Escalated heartbeats, frowed brows, bruised fingertips and one injured ego later, silence descended on the table. Dinner was over. 

This is not an exceptional scene. Often when a track plays at a club that a partying group cannot recognise, many fall over each other to sway their iPhones, Android and BlackBerry phones in front of the thumping speaker to see who gets the track first. 

Phones today are like extended personalities of their users. BlackBerry users are made fun of for being tech dinosaurs, Android users for being nerds and iPhone users for being spoon-fed fanboys and girls. And each group wishes the other one would just man up and move teams. 

Unsurprisingly, everyday we are blitzed with information about user profiles, most of which you don't need to know - from how many times iPhone users have sex in a week to whether Android users call after a one-night-nookie. As it turns out, in case you really have to know, according to one of the hundreds of studies with suspect credentials, Android users are most likely to use their beloved phones while doing the do on the pot as well as most likely to get lucky on the first date. But if you are looking to snag that young thing at work who uses a BlackBerry, remember they are the shy, romantic sort, so it might take more than a just an off-hour BB message. And while Android users are most active on online dating sites (probably true considering their stereotype classifies them as socially awkward), iPhone users date most co-workers. So, you have a better chance with the not-so-young iPhone user at work. 

However, apart from the amusing typecasts, some studies actually delve into the demographics and user habits of those using different operating systems. These studies are used by the thousands of application (app) development companies to judge which mobile platform would work best for which app or who to market it to. For instance, a study conducted by Hunch. com says that Android users are more likely to hear a sales pitch on the phone than iPhone people. Early adopters of new technology, more often than not, set the trend for the kind of users who will adapt to it. 

On the whole, iPhone users are much more affluent and proud trendsetters, Android users are much more tech-savvy and non-conforming while BlackBerry users are pigeonholed as the always-on-workemail-no-distraction workers. 

Arun Benty, founder and director (business development ), Trellisys, a Bangalore-based Internet communications service company, says, "The BB user is the wannabe techie and thinks he is the power user when actually he/she is years behind. iPhone users in India think they are God's gift to mankind because they don't use a janta phone. Actually, outside India, iPhone is the janta phone, but Windows 7 or Android stand out. And whether in India or abroad, the average Android user actually really wants the iPhone but can't afford it. " 

Rib-tickling as that might sound;Benty explains that companies actually use these insights because they are backed by rationale. "Most Android apps are free. That's why there aren't very good games on Android - it isn't worth the while for the developer. iPhone buyers are rich and don't really care. Statistics say that they buy five apps a week worth almost $20 a month, " says Benty. The company's top selling app is known as the SAS Survival Guide, which is on the top 20 app lists of several sites. It isn't cheap either at $6. 99. Their highest sale was 4, 000 in a day. 

Age groups and gender skews also make a difference when it comes to specific applications as phone and device users are getting younger by the day. Says Nishant Pant, co-founder of Dallas-based Loqly Inc (pronounced 'locally', it is a hugely popular app for sharing local area knowledge): "If you want to target kids (learning games etc) aged 2-7 years, then iPhone/iPad are the best platforms. Kids these days intuitively figure out how to use iOS devices. It baffles me how comfortable my daughter is with her iPad. " But for Loqly, the company needed users to be extremely socially active, online and offline and that calls for the age group of 25-45. 

"Call it a stereotype, but the kind of phone you have does say something about your tastes and willingness to try new stuff. So, when we make apps like Loqly, we don't even bother about BB or Windows Mobile, " says Pant. 

And as different phones are geared towards different core applications, software development companies follow user trend reports keenly. 

"BB is central to business users and if I am looking for casual game development, it will not be for BB. On the other hand, people who use iOS (Apple) are richer, more ok about spending online. Last year, the iPhone market share was 16-18 per cent of the total mobile market and Android, 48-51 per cent. Yet number of Google searches made from iOS is three or four times higher than those from Android. IPhone buyers therefore are more likely to be online, more for casual entertainment, will search more and download more apps, " says Abhay Kushwaha, programme manager for sales, Net Solutions, a Chandigarh-based software company. 

But most developers cannot afford to ignore either platform - what changes is the sequence in which they develop them. Kushwaha says that except for business apps (which are released first for BBs), they release apps first on iOS to test the waters, followed by Android and then BBs. For Trellisys also, 60-70 per cent of the revenue comes from Apple apps, while Android and Windows 7 are catching up. Companies make money on Android apps via ads. 

"When we were developing Flick-It a file-sharing app, we realised that there was no such app for Windows 7 phones, so it was need based. We saw some healthy downloads but on demand we built an Android version too, " explains Benty, who says that India is still a feature-phone heavy country but moving to apps. 

So, the next time you are stuck on a fishing boat, contemplating which bait the fish would bite and wishing there were an app for it, remember someone is listening and probably building one right that moment.