Phone Apps Account for Most Digital Media Use but App Discovery Waning, Report Says

Smartphone apps account for more than 50 percent of digital media use, said a Thursday comScore report. Desktop computers make up 34 percent of digital media usage, tablet apps are 7 percent, smartphone web use is 7 percent and tablet web use is 2 percent, it said. By age, 18-24-year-olds spend two-thirds of their digital media time -- more than three hours a day -- on smartphone apps, compared with 54 percent for 25-34-year-olds, 53 percent for 35-44-year-olds, 48 percent for 45-54-year-olds and 46 percent for 55-64-year-olds. Digital media users 65 and older spend 27 percent of that time on smartphone apps and 53 percent of their time on desktop PCs, vs. the 23 percent of PC time by 18-24-year-olds, comScore said. On average, U.S. digital media users spend 2.3 hours per day on mobile apps, comScore said. But digital media users are selective about the apps they frequent, said comScore. Most smartphone users don’t download any apps in a month, and the average number is two, it said. Among users 13 and older for the three months ended June, 51 percent downloaded no apps, 8 percent downloaded three and 5 percent downloaded eight or more, it said. App discovery is down across app stores, word-of-mouth referrals and marketing-driven efforts, said the research firm. The percentage of smartphone users searching a store for an app slipped to 20 percent from 21 during the three months ended June, and 13 percent sought out new apps from a featured list. Word of mouth, at 15 percent of users, was more effective for app discovery than social media (10 percent) or news/reviews (8 percent). Advertising was minimally effective for app discovery at 10 percent via website, 9 percent via device browser and 6 percent via TV, print or billboard, it said. The report was based on behavioral measurement and results from a survey of 1,033 smartphone users in July.