Holiday shoppers weren't just buying lots of Apple gear this year; they were buying with Apple gear, with iOS users shopping more than three times as much as mobile users on Android.
According to a report on holiday shopping by IBM, published by Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal "All Things D" blog, Apple's iPad "generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping."
IBM's report on holiday shopping, titled "The iPad Factor," noted that Apple's iPhone was close behind with 8.7 percent of holiday traffic, while Google's entire Android platform accounted for just 5.5 percent.
Among tablets, Apple's iPad made up a whopping 88.3 percent of purchases, followed by The Nook with 3.1 percent, Amazon's storefront-centric Kindle family with 2.4 percent, and Samsung's Galaxy branded tablets making up 1.8 percent of tablet transactions.
Swisher also pointed out that eBay's PalPal division reported that its mobile transactions had grown by a factor of 2-3, much of which was represented by Apple devices. It specifically noted that "one of its bestselling items on Black Friday was the iPad 2, selling 250 per hour from 12 am to 8 am Pacific Time."
IBM: Apple's iOS dominated holiday shopping, 330% greater than Android