Foldable phone users spend way more on apps than the rest of us plebs

Foldable phones cost a lot more than non-folding ones — the Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at $1,900 to the regular 11 Pro’s $1,100 — so it stands to reason that many of the customers buying them are in the habit of spending generously on their mobile experience. A recent post on the official Android Developers X account claims that foldable owners aren’t just spending more on hardware, but also an order of magnitude more on the software they’re downloading, too.

The post Android Developers shared makes the claim that foldable users spend a whopping 14 times more on purchases within apps than users with non-folding phones. The message Google wants to send is clear: Despite foldables enjoying a relatively small portion of total market share, the people using those foldables tend to spend quite a bit on in-app purchases (IAPs), and so app developers should make sure their software is optimized for the form factor.

The specific 14x claim is made in both the text of the post and in an attached video. That info presumably comes from Google’s own internal data — the short post doesn’t cite any sources. In-app purchases also cover a pretty wide range of potential spending, from subscriptions billed through Google Play to currency in mobile games.

As for why or how foldable owners are apparently spending so much on IAPs, we’re left to speculate. It makes sense that many people who buy foldable phones are mobile tech enthusiasts who, given what foldables tend to cost, enjoy a fair amount of disposable income. That’s part of a plausible explanation, but I do still wonder how much 14x the normal amount shakes out to, and what exactly foldable users are spending so much on within apps.

Do you use a foldable phone? Are you spending a bunch of money on in-app purchases? If yes, what kinds? Enlighten us in the comments.

Thanks: Dylan H