Apple’s iOS is much more popular than Google’s Android when it comes to m-commerce usage in the US.

According to Arbitron Mobile, a market-research firm, 67.5 per cent of iPhone customers among its US smartphone panellists used mobile apps for commerce. That compares with 43.9 per cent of Android users who do the same.

What’s more, iPhone users spend much more time using mobile commerce apps than their Android counterparts. From the smartphone panellists canvassed by Arbitron Mobile, iPhone users notched up an average of 105.3 minutes of m-commerce usage per month. Android users logged 87.6 minutes.

iPhone users also take more virtual shopping trips, clocking up 35 sessions per month versus Android users’ 29.5 sessions.

Arbitron Mobile further finds that eBay is the most popular m-commerce app overall, with 14.3 per cent of the research firm’s sample having used it. Amazon Mobile (13 per cent) and Groupon (11.1 per cent) are the next popular.

Apple’s Passbook app claimed fourth spot, used by 8.1 per cent of Arbitron Mobile’s survey sample. The wallet app is designed for loyalty cards, tickets and coupons, so essentially serves as a portal for other mobile commerce apps.

Consequently Passbook attracted far less average time in usage, and far fewer sessions, than apps that include the ability to search for something that can be bought.  For instance, users spent an average of two minutes per month on Passbook compared with ten times that figure for third-placed Groupon. Also, Passbook averaged only 2.6 sessions per month (compared to 9.1 for Groupon).

The top three web domains for smartphone commerce are Amazon (used by 34.7 per cent of panellists), Google (28.4 per cent) and eBay (18 per cent).

Although web domains are accessed far more than specific mobile apps, whether directly by browser or as a consequence of app usage, the time spent on web domains (and the average number of sessions each month) is “significantly smaller” says the research firm.

Arbitron Mobile conducted its survey in February.