With US smartphone penetration among mobile subscribers now at 70 percent, comScore released its
May smartphone data yesterday. Compared with last month there isn’t much change in the numbers. Android remains the top OS, the iPhone is the top individual device and Facebook is the most widely distributed and used mobile app.
When we look at the data over the past three years however it becomes more interesting. BlackBerry has seen a precipitous decline in share (you knew that). Microsoft’s share is essentially flat and so is Android’s (despite millions more devices in the market in real numbers).
The iPhone by contrast, according to comScore, gained ten points over that time frame. It is actually the biggest mover among the operating systems in terms of overall share.
Source: comScore 2012 – 2014
Comscore first started reporting on and ranking apps in July 2013. Below is a comparison of July 2013 vs. May 2014.
Source: comScore
There has been little change in the top 15. The app “voice search” is gone and so is something comScore called “Apple App Suite,” which included iTunes, Apple App Store, and Apple Game Center. In their places are Google+ and iTunes Radio.
Otherwise most of the top 15 haven’t moved much. Apple Maps is down two places. Pandora is up three and so is Instagram. Facebook Messenger is the largest gainer, up 5 points.
Currently Google has the most apps in the top 15 with six total. Facebook has three and Apple has two in the top 15.
According to comScore apps now command 51 percent of total digital media time — more time than the PC.
Source: comScore June 2014
According to Nielsen on average people have just under 27 apps installed on their smartphones in the US. What that means essentially is that a small number of apps (see above) are capturing huge amounts of digital media time in this country. It’s not clear that marketers have absorbed the full implications of this.
For example, if digital ad spend and time spent in apps were commensurate, digital ad revenue in the US would look more like this:
Total 2014 digital ad revenue projection for US (me): ~$49+ billion
Mobile ad spend: ~$29 billion (vs. projected ~$15 – $17 billion)
PC ad spend: ~$20 billion (vs. projected ~$32 – $34 billion)
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