Facebook, Google Apps Dominate U.S. Smartphone Usage in 2014

Facebook was the top smartphone app of 2014, with 118 million average unique users each month, said a Nielsen report on digital trends in U.S. smartphone apps and operating systems released Wednesday. Consumers seemed to “place a premium” on the Internet’s social side in 2014, Nielsen said, with a large portion of the top smartphone apps geared to connectivity. In addition to its top app rank, Facebook's Messenger app had a user uptake jump of 242 percent over 2013 to reach the seven position on the smartphone app list. Positions two through six were held by the Google family: Google Search, YouTube, Google Play, Google Maps and Gmail. Google+, Instagram and iTunes Radio/iCloud were in the eight, nine and 10 spots. Among operating systems, in Q3, Android held the top spot with 51.9 percent of smartphone users, followed by iOS with 42.9 percent, Nielsen said. Eking out slivers of the U.S. market were Windows Phone with 2.8 percent, Blackberry with 1.5 percent and “other” with 0.9 percent, it said. Nielsen’s findings were based on passive metering technology on smartphones used by roughly 5,000 panelists on an opt-in basis. Operating system data was based on Nielsen’s monthly survey of 30,000-plus mobile subscribers aged 13 and older in the U.S.