This graph perfectly highlights the ever-growing gap between iPhone and Android prices

Over the past eight years, the gap between the average price of iPhones and that of Android phones has more than doubled, according research from KPCB/Morgan Stanley.

Back in 2008 the average price of iPhones was $621, while with Android phones this was $403--a $218 delta. Today, this difference has ballooned to $443--the average price of Android phones has shrunk to $208 while that of iPhones has slightly risen.

You will find more statistics at Statista

The inflection point appears at the 2011 time frame at which time a host of both Indian and Chinese companies entered the market with budget Android smartphones. Micromax launched their debut Android device back in 2011, Oppo and Vivo launched their phones in 2012 while Xiaomi released their first Android phones in Feb-March 2014.

This democratization of smartphones led to the flurry of device options that we see in the markets today, a strategy that Apple has classically chosen to stay away from. At any given time they have had no more than 4-6 device variations to choose from, and these have always occupied the premium segment. Even though top-tier Android phone brands such as Samsung and Sony do have offerings in the high-end space, the number of phones in this rarefied segment is few compared to the teeming crowd of device options in the mid- and entry-level Android sector.

Google announced their Android One platform in 2014 with the aim of defining a set of specification best practices in these lower-priced devices, to enable a greater number of quality low-end devices to reach consumers. With an ever growing list of companies joining the Android fray (especially those unbelievable Rs 250 phone offers,) it looks like this Apple-Android price differential is only poised to increase.