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Smartphone users top majority share of mobile browsers, apps in U.S.
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 05 October 2010, 10:22 IST
Reston: Major share of the mobile subscribers who uses their browser and downloaded applications are Smartphone Users, revealed a recent report by comScore on mobile application and browser usage based on data from its comScore MobiLens service. In the 3 month average ending August 2010, Smartphone subscribers made up 60 percent of those who used a downloaded application and 55 percent of those who used a browser. The study also found out that males lead the charge on Smart phones with 56 percent of app/browser usage but females are also gaining ground.
There was a considerable increase in the percentage of Smartphone users using downloaded apps from 43.6 percent last year to 60.4 percent this year. There was an increase in the percentage of browser usage too, which got boosted to 55.5 percent from the 41.4 percent last year. Among the various age segments, 13-17 year olds are exhibiting the strongest growth in using downloaded apps or browsers, up 1.4 percentage points versus year ago to 6.9 percent of the audience. Persons ages 18-24 are also accelerating adopters of app/browser usage, representing 16.7 percent of the audience, a 0.6-percentage point increase.
Smartphone users topped the numbers with a lion's share of 60.4 percent using downloaded applications among the 75.6 million mobile subscribers aged 13 and older and 55.5 percent among the 80.8 million subscribers using their browsers. "Smartphone owners now represent the majority of the U.S. mobile audience accessing downloaded applications and browsers represents a watershed moment in the industry. Although Smart phones still make up less than a quarter of the U.S. mobile market, they are generating the lion's share of mobile content consumption. With Smartphone's share of the pie destined to get greater over time, marketers and content providers should begin to shift their focus towards developing with primarily these devices in mind." said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile.
This year also saw the rise of female App/Browser users who account for 44 percent of app/browser usage which is a 5.5 percent increase compared to last year. Weather and maps represented the top content categories accessed through downloaded applications in August, used by more than one-third of U.S. Smartphone subscribers. Social networking applications were used by 30 percent, while search and news applications were used by 18 percent. Search was the most popular category accessed through browsers, reaching 54 percent of the Smartphone audience which was followed by social networking sites via browser (43 percent) and news (40 percent).
