Last Thursday, comScore released their 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report, which tracks the amount of digital media consumption on mobile devices, who is consuming that media, and what their usage habits are. It has been a while since we asked, “Does your website look good on a smartphone?” A little more than a year later, the data seems to indicate we should ask a different question: If your website doesn’t look good on mobile, why do you even have one? Mobile usage patterns, especially among younger users, are becoming more organized and efficient in ways that only work on phones. One result of that efficiency is a reduction in the number of apps downloaded and used, but on a deeper level, it means many people have chosen mobile as their preferred web platform and have taken control of it.
- 5 key takeaways for Apple, Google and others from the latest mobile stats (TheStreet | Eric Jhonsa) “comScore’s data indicates smartphones accounted for 57% of all U.S. digital media time spent in June, with smartphone apps accounting for 50% and smartphone web browsing 7%. PCs now account for just 34% of time spent, and tablets just 9%. On average, U.S. consumers now spend 2.3 hours per day using apps, with younger demographic groups spending more time and older ones less.”
- Majority of U.S. consumers still download zero apps per month, says comScore (TechCrunch | Sarah Perez) “comScore found that among those aged 18 to 24 years old, two-thirds of their digital media time is spent using smartphone apps alone. Not surprisingly, that percentage drops steadily the older the user, with just 27 percent of seniors 65 and older spending their digital media time in smartphone apps, for instance.”
- Fresh data shows millennials’ favorite apps — and it’s bad news for Snapchat (Business Insider | Tanya Dua) “Amazon ranks number one, while Facebook (29%) and Instragram (11%) both rank inside the top 10. Overall, Facebook and Google together make up the top eight of the top 10 most used apps across age groups, with Snapchat and Pandora rounding out the ranking. Snapchat, with 50%, ranks equal with Instagram. It’s not all bad for Snapchat. The platform seems to be entrenched firmly in the daily routines of younger millennials below the age of 24, featuring in their top used apps, behind Facebook and ahead of Instagram.”
- Primetime: comScore report may show that apps have peaked (Android Headlines | Daniel Golightly) “A large majority of Millennials, in particular, have a fewer number of home screens overall and the number of items they have on their home screens is trending down. That isn’t likely an overly difficult task for the majority of users since most users only access 20 apps or less per month, but that number has a tendency to increase as age lowers. The majority of users, at 67 percent, still leave those apps on the home screen individually, but there has been a year-over-year 3 point uptick in the number of users organizing their apps into folders either on the home screen or on a secondary screen such as their app drawer. Moreover, an increasing number of millennials position applications and folders on their home screen with consideration for how easy it is to reach the application with their thumb. That is directly correlated to the difference between how those in different age groups hold their devices, with older users tending to use both hands more often than millennials.”
Articles from Ohio Web Library:
- Mobile consumer behavior.
(Library Technology Reports, Aug/Sep 2013, p.9-14 | Bohyun Kim) - Mobile apps in library programs. (Library Technology Reports, Nov/Dec 2014, p.18-22 | Nicole Hennig)
- 12 tips to better writing for the mobile web. (Computers in Libraries, Jan/Feb 2016, p.12-16 | David Lee King)
