Time Spent In Mobile Apps Is Starting To Challenge Television

Now that usage of mobile apps has overtaken browsing on the desktop web, it’s starting to challenge television, Flurry says. The San Francisco-based mobile analytics startup says that consumers are spending 127 minutes per day in mobile apps, up 35 percent from 94 minutes a day in the same time last year. At the same time, desktop web usage actually declined slightly by 2.4 percent from 72 to 70 minutes

This means that U.S. consumers are spending nearly two times more time in mobile apps than on the web. And this time spent is now starting to challenge time spent watching TV. Flurry estimates that the average U.S. consumer watches 168 minutes of television per day, based on data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010 and 2011.

“We ultimately expect apps on tablets and smartphones to challenge broadcast television as the dominant channel for media consumption,” said Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf.

Flurry also did its annual look at how consumers spend time in apps across different categories. Like before, games lead the way, but at a slightly lower marketshare than in previous years.

Entertainment apps and utilities gained marketshare at the expense of social networking and games. Last year, games took up 50 percent of time spent in mobile apps while social networking accounted for 30 percent. This year, gaming’s marketshare is down to 43 percent while social networking comes in at 26 percent.

via TechCrunch