As a designer, one thing I’ve noticed as a web-design trend lately is to feature Apple products in the design, primarily iPhones. While I understand that they are beautiful devices I don’t think they are as beneficial to a design as many may believe.
While I do believe that showing shots of your application or site being used is fantastic because being demonstrable is a great tactic for conversions, it’s that I don’t think an iPhone should be used in all cases.
For example, the site cookwiz.me shows an iPhone on the landing page, yet the application is only currently (at the time of this article) available for Android devices. In fact, based on this past quarters smartphone sales, Android has 72% market share for new mobile devices. Since Android has grown to be the most widely used smartphone OS I would guess that any given target market has a high chance of being primarily Android users.
With that said, here is a small collection of nicely designed sites featuring an iPhone, whether it be the best option or not.
https://www.mysteryfriendapp.com/
Instead of featuring an iPhone by default, why not show the app on the actual device with which the user is visiting.
This creates a familiar kind of feeling for the user plus it allows you to reduce options:
Your copy and call to action can be focused on one specific platform, instead of giving the user every possible option.
I would be careful when thinking about the statistics regarding Android.
The Android OS covers a huge range of devices, anything from the Kindle Fire to some unbranded Chinese brand could be considered an ‘Android Mobile Device’.
In terms of actual smartphone handsets (which can be used in creatives), I believe the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy are the market leaders at this point.
That said, I agree with what you’re saying. If your page is about an iPhone app, by all means show an iPhone.
If it’s available on multiple platforms, it would make sense to show multiple platforms, or have custom designed landing pages for each. I’ve actually seen the custom designs in action and they are pretty impressive and super targeted.
Seems to me that anyone using an iPhone graphic for a site that only offers an Android app is either completely out of touch with their client or just stupid. Or maybe they’re blinded by their Apple addiction, who knows.
Actually… does anyone split test this? Could it be a weird situation where the iPhone graphic results in the best conversions, even for Android users?