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Report: Apps Nearly 90 Percent Of Smartphone Internet Time

Greg Sterling on March 7, 2014 at 12:22 pm

Nielsen released a new cross platform report. Among other things it compares time spent with various media. TV remains the king of all media by time spent per day. That’s followed by traditional radio and then smartphones.

The report also compares app vs. mobile web usage by time spent. While Men and women spend roughly the same amounts of time accessing the internet on smartphones, women spend roughly 5 hours a month more than men using tablets.

Smartphone usage

As the chart above indicates 89 percent of smartphone internet time is spent in using apps. Eleven percent of time is spent using the mobile web. When it comes to tablet based internet access the time difference by gender is much greater, with women spending five hours more per month than men on tablets.

Looking at mobile web vs. app usage on tablets, the chasm is not quite as great. Just over 80 percent of tablet time is spent with apps vs. 19 percent using the mobile web. That makes sense; the larger tablet screen offers a better mobile web experience than on a smartphone.

Tablet usage

There are certain verticals (e.g., retail) where mobile web usage is greater than apps. However those are the exceptions.

For years certain developers argued that the mobile web would ultimately take over and app usage would fall away. The opposite has happened; app usage has only grown with time.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.