Commentary

Think Apps Beat The Mobile Web? Not So Fast

by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, January 14, 2015

Conventional wisdom holds that mobile apps are more popular than the mobile Web, but they actually overlap and share audience far more than you might expect, judging by the latest research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and its Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. In particular, the IAB MMCE study, based on a Harris Poll survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, found that mobile apps drive substantial traffic to the mobile Web -- which, however, isn’t always acknowledged as Web (rather than app) activity.

While comScore estimates that smartphone users spend around 88% of their time with mobile apps, the IAB notes that much of this is “mobile web use in disguise,” considering that 52% of smartphone owners say they click on links within apps that take them to mobile Web sites at least occasionally. At the same time, just 37% of smartphone users said their usage skews heavily or somewhat towards mobile apps, while 33% said they spend equal amounts of time on mobile apps and the mobile Web, and 30% said they favor the mobile Web somewhat or very much.

When it comes to specific activities, smartphone users often favored the mobile Web over apps in most categories. For example, 42% of respondents surveyed said they prefer the mobile Web for search, compared to 20% for apps. Also, 28% prefer the mobile Web for shopping, compared to 22% for apps, and 25% prefer the mobile Web for local directory access, compared to 21% for apps. For reading news preferences were even, at 25% for both mobile Web and apps.

Asked how they find mobile Web sites to visit, 54% of respondents cited search, 29% cited recommendations including email and word-of-mouth, and 26% cited links in social media apps.

The subjects where the mobile Web dominates also tell an interesting story, one more focused on what I would term “serious” subjects. According to comScore, people are more likely to use mobile browsers for activity relating to career services and development (54%), real estate (64%), automotive (91%), and -- ahem -- adult content (97%, because apparently no, there isn’t an app for that).

apps, mobile

2 comments about "Think Apps Beat The Mobile Web? Not So Fast".

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mike boland from BIA/Kelsey, January 16, 2015 at 3:57 p.m.
I'd be careful of survey data. Besides standard weaknesses in the results set being tied to respondents' recollection or aspirations, it is measuring headcount only, instead of behavioral frequency. In other words, measuring how many users are doing a given activity is an incomplete picture. 99 percent of mobile users may exhibit a given behavior but it's a misleading statistic if each of those users are doing that activity 5 percent of the time. So actual usage tracking methodologies or server data is much more reliable than survey data. With that disclaimer, survey data can be directionally relevant, and these data are interesting in that light.
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Ned Newhouse from Conde Nast , March 23, 2015 at 10:37 a.m.

I really do appreciate this Erik. Its the analysis we made years ago, and I'm glad we were right to 95% go mobileweb. It would have meant we wasted a lot of time, money and energy if we fell into the trap. We build apps when beyond content a utility of data or content is required. Other than that, forgetaboutit.