With smartphones expected to take the lead over other phones by 2011, mobile apps have become the latest trend and hot topic when it comes to talking smartphones. Nielsen recently launched a survey, called the ‘App Playbook’ which questioned more than 4000 people who downloaded an application in the past 30 days. The results of this survey reveal some very interesting stats.
In this survey 21% of American mobile phone users report owning a smartphone in Q4 2009, up 2% from the previous quarter and significantly higher than at the end of 2008, where only 14% of people reported owning a smartphone. Also, 14% of mobile users report they have downloaded at least one app in a 30 day period.
When the actual numbers of downloaded apps are tallied up and compared to smart vs. feature phones, it is found that smartphone users had more apps, 22 vs. 10 for feature phones.
iPhone users reportedly used the most apps, coming in at an average of 37 applications per phone. BlackBerry users had the least, coming in at only 10 per phone. Android users came in at 22 apps per phone, Palm 14, and Windows Mobile users had 13 apps per phone.
The survey indicated games are the most downloaded application, both free and paid. Facebook, Google Maps, and the Weather Channel are the most popular applications on all platforms.
Males typically use mapping and search applications over females, as well as video and movie applications. Music was more evenly split, showing Yahoo Music used by both sexes at nearly the same rate (51/49).