Who spent more money this holiday season? Apple’s customers. That made it a struggle for me to come up with the right article headline to match my perspective.

Apple is a premium brand, and pound for pound, dollar for dollar, Apple’s customers spend more money than Windows PC users or Android smartphone owners. Why? And why does that same tendency to buy a premium branded product spill over into holiday shopping, app shopping, and accessories? Indeed, Apple is the king of premium.

Taste, Feel, Economics

What should I call this situation where Apple rules online shopping with premium products that bring the company more riches than any other technology gadget maker? I struggled to find a single word that describes Apple’s position whereby personal tastes, product usability, education, and economics are primary factors, so let me coin a phrase– premium personal econometrics.

In general, Apple’s customers are more educated than either Windows PCs users or Android smartphone customers, have more spendable income, are more concerned about status, usability, and the inconvenience of using devices which take up time unnecessarily.

In essence, Apple is the kind of premium; and every Apple product of significance occupies what is called the premium end of the spectrum for each business segment; Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch, Apple TV, or whatever else the company pastes a logo onto.

Those who track such things say that 68-percent of e-commerce traffic that started the holiday shopping season came from a smartphone. Add tablets to the mix and that accounted for 77-percent of online purchase traffic. In other words, we’re using smartphones and tablets more than our personal computers to buy online. Of that, Apple’s iPhone and iPads have a disproportionate percentage of the purchases, and a higher amount for each online purchase.

Why?

Back to the numbers. Apple’s customers, in general again, are more educated, therefore more discriminate with what they buy and where. They’re also inclined to have more income which can be devoted to online purchases, and that means they’re more likely to spend more in total and spend more with each purchase and to buy more premium products.

That’s what I call premium personal econometrics.

It’s Apple’s attention to the perception of quality which allows the company to own most of the profits in smartphones and tablets and personal computers and watches (all watches, not just smartwatches). In other words, Apple makes more profits than competitors because it creates products specifically targeted to those with the right premium personal econometrics.

That also means Apple’s products fall into a newly created product category or segment that I call affordable luxury. All Apple’s products fit into that category. The iPhone owned by the wealthiest smartphone user is the same iPhone used by Mr. and Mrs. Average, high school students, retail and factory workers. Ditto for the Mac, the iPad, and Watch. In other words, the average person may not be able to afford a Lexus or Cadillac or BMW or Mercedes but their smartphone, tablet, watch, and personal computer can be the same.

Thanks to personal econometrics, Apple has become the purveyor of affordable luxury gadgets.