Most popular Mobile Apps

Mobile applications probably consume more user’s mobile time as compared to their core features of voice and messaging. Over last few years, mobile users are increasingly using mobile phones for social networking, gaming & music.

Infact, the recent increase in Smartphone mania has increased mobile app usage even further. Nielsen recently carried out a survey to find out popular Mobile phone Apps. Not surprisingly Gaming, Music, news and social networking were the top mobile app categories.

Interestingly, Games and Music are two categories which are most popular irrespective of type of phone – whether feature phone or a smartphone.

Key statistics & findings on Mobile phone Apps Usage

• 21% of American wireless subscribers have a smartphone at Q4 2009, up from 19% in the previous quarter and significantly higher than the 14% at the end of 2008
• 14% of mobile subscribers have downloaded an app in the last 30 days
• Average number of apps: Smartphone: 22, Feature phone: 10
  • BlackBerry: 10
  • iPhone:37
  • Android: 22
  • Palm: 14
  • Windows Mobile: 13
• Games are the most downloaded – both free and paid
• Facebook, Google Maps and Weather Channel are the most popular apps across smartphones
• iPhones: Facebook (58%), iTunes (48%), Google Maps (47%)
• Android: Google Maps (67%), Facebook (50%), Weather Channel (38%)
• Blackberry: Facebook (51%), Google Maps(34%), Weather Channel (28%
• Social Networking: Facebook clearly favorite app, but MySpace is hugely popular among teens; LinkedIn attracts adults 25-44
• News/weather: Weather Channel was used by 58%; age distribution across sites was similar, save for Time Mobile and Thomson Reuters
• Shopping: Amazon and eBay lead (57% and 41%)
• Search/Map: skew male, particularly Instamapper (80/20)
• Video/Movie: skewed towards males; Imeem and Moviefone show a higher proportion of young users
• Music: iTunes, Pandora, Sirius XM appeal more to males, while Yahoo Music almost evenly split (51/49)

It is interesting to note that on Android Google Maps is the most popular app that is used, while on all other mobile phones Facebook is the number one app based on usage.

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