Apt To Use Apps

by Jack Loechner, Sep 22, 2010, 8:16 AM

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According to he most recent Pew Internet Project survey, cell phone use in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past decade. 82% of adults today are cell phone users, and 23% of adults now live in a household that has a cell phone but no landline phone.

Of the 82% of adults today who are cell phone users, 43% have software applications or "apps" on their phones. When taken as a portion of the entire U.S. adult population, that equates to 35% who have cell phones with apps. This figure includes adult cell phone users who:

• Have downloaded an app to their phone (29% of adult cell phone users) and/or
• Have purchased a phone with preloaded apps (38% of adult cell phone users)

Among the most popular are apps that provide some form of entertainment, as well as those that help people find information they need and accomplish tasks. With the advent of the mobile phone, the term "app" has become popular parlance for software applications designed to run on mobile phone operating systems, yet a standard, industry-wide definition of what is, and is not, an "app" does not currently exist. For the purpose of this report, apps are defined as end-user software applications that are designed for a cell phone operating system.

Popular Types Of Apps (% of recent downloaders who have used each category of apps in the past month)
App	% of Recent Downloaders
Games	60%
News/Weather	52
Maps/Navigation/Sea...	51
Social Networking	47
Music	43
Entertainment/Food	34
Banking/Finance	28
Sports	27
Productivity	26
Shopping/Retail	24
Video/Movies	22
Communication	21
Travel/Lifestyle	18
Other	3
Source: The Nielsen App Playbook, December 2009. September 2010

Having apps and using apps are not synonymous, concludes the report. Of those who have apps on their phones, only 68% of this group actually use that software. Overall, that means that 24% of U.S. adults are active apps users. Older adult cell phone users in particular do not use the apps that are on their phones, and 11% of adults with a cell phone are not even sure if their phone is equipped with apps.

Popular Apps Used (% of adult cell phone users who do each of the following on their phone)
App Use	% of Cell Users
Take a picture	76%
Send or receive text messages	72
Access the internet	38
Play a game	34
Send or receive email	34
Record a video	34
Play music	33
Send or receive instant messages	30
Use an app	29
Source: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, April 29-May 30, 2010 Tracking Survey. September 2010

When compared with other cell phone using adults, and the entire U.S. adult population, the apps user population skews male, and is much younger, more affluent, and more educated than other adults. Overall, the apps-using population also skews slightly Hispanic when compared with other adult cell phone users.

As with the apps-using population as a whole, downloaders are younger, more educated, and disproportionately male when compared with the total U.S. adult population. And while they resemble adults who only have preloaded apps in terms of education, they are still disproportionately young and male even when compared with this group.

App Users Are Disproportionately Male, Young, Educated And Affluent (% of each group in each demographic category)
	App Users	Adult Cell Phone Users Who Do Not Use Apps	Total U.S. Adults
Gender
Male	57%	46%	48%
Female	43	54	52
Age
18-29	44	18	23
30-49	41	34	34
50+	14	46	41
Race/Ethnicity
White (non-Hispanic)	64	70	69
Black (non-Hispanic)	14	12	12
Hispanic (English-speaking)	14	11	11
Education
Less than high school	8	12	13
High school graduate	24	35	34
Some college	29	24	25
College graduate	39	28	28
Annual Household Income
Less than $50,000	41	43	46
$50,000-$74,999	15	15	14
$75,000+	36	24	24
Source: Pew Research Center, April 29-May 30, 2010 Tracking Survey, September 2010

While 24% of adults (29% of adults with cell phones) use applications on their phones, apps use still ranks relatively low when compared with other non-voice cell phone activities. Taking pictures and texting are far and away the most popular non-voice cell phone data applications, with more than seven in ten adult cell phone users embracing these features of their phones.

App Use (% of adult cell phone users who do each of the following on their phone)
Activity	% of Cell Phone Users
Take a picture	76%
Send or receive text messages	72
Access the internet	38
Play a game	34
Send or receive email	34
Record a video	34
Play music	33
Send or receive instant messages	30
Use an app	29
Source: Pew Research Center April 29-May 30, 2010 Tracking Survey, September 2010

Those who download apps do so fairly frequently. Among apps downloaders, 53% say their most recent download was in the past 30 days, including 33% who say their last download was within the past week. As a fraction of all cell phone-using adults, that equates to 15% who have downloaded apps in the past month, and 10% who have downloaded apps in the past week. Among cell phone users under age 30, 20% have downloaded an app in the past week.

Among the 29% of adult cell phone users who download apps, 47% have paid for an app, with the remainder saying they only download apps that are free. Put in broader context, that means that 13% of all adult cell phone users have paid to download an app to their phone. There are few notable demographic differences between downloaders who pay for apps and those who do not.

There were several notable differences, says the report, among the Nielsen recent-downloader sample in terms of which apps they favored and how frequently they used them. For instance:

• Women in the sample were more likely than men to have used a social networking app in the past 30 days (53% v. 42%), and women who used the Facebook app were also more likely to use that app everyday (64% v. 55%)
• Women in the sample were more likely than men to have a used a game app in the past 30 days (63% v. 58%), while men were more likely to have used a productivity app (29% v. 21%) or a banking/finance app (31% v. 25%)
• Among the Nielsen sample of recent downloaders, whites (53%) and Hispanics (47%) were more likely than African-Americans (36%) to have used a map/navigation/search app in the month prior to the survey
•  Hispanics, on the other hand, were the most likely to have used a music app recently (48% of Hispanics v. 42% of whites and 42% of African-Americans)
•  In the Nielsen sample, 75% of 18-24 year-old Twitter app users reported using that app every day, compared with 52% of the 25-34 year-olds and 48% of the Twitter users age 35 and older
•  In contrast, among Nielsen's Facebook app users, 25-34 year-olds were more likely than both younger and older Facebook app users to report using their Facebook app daily
• The African-Americans and Hispanics in the Nielsen sample were significantly more likely than whites to be daily users of their Youtube apps (33% of African-Americans v. 24% of Hispanics v. 12% of whites) and their Pandora music apps (33% of African-Americans v. 27% of Hispanics v. 14% of whites)

For the summary report and to access the PDF file, please visit Pew here.

 

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