Android Users Most Likely to Click on Mobile Ads in Apps

According to “The State Of Mobile Apps,” a report released by Nielsen for the AppNation Conference, Android users are more likely to click on mobile ads within apps than their counterparts are. Among the other findings is that BlackBerry users are the least likely to convert from being a trial-version app user to a paid user.

Games were the most popular category of apps used in the past 30 days, according to Nielsen, which noted that 61 percent of smart-phone users and 52 percent of feature-phone users said they used a game app in the past 30 days.

Weather apps followed, with 55 percent of smart-phone users and 39 percent of feature-phone users, while maps/navigation/search apps had 50 percent of smart-phone users and 30 percent of feature-phone users.

Social networking apps claimed 49 percent of the smart-phone user responses and 32 percent of feature-phone user responses, while music apps were used by 42 percent of smart-phone users and 36 percent of feature-phone users.

The kinds of apps used in the past 30 days varied by operating system. For instance, 50 percent of iPhone OS users said they used the Facebook app in the past 30 days, followed by the Weather Channel app with 47 percent, the Google Maps app with 36 percent, the iPod/iTunes app with 32 percent and the Pandora app with 23 percent.

For Android users, the most popular app was Google Maps with 46 percent, followed by Facebook with 45 percent, Weather Channel with 33 percent, Pandora with 24 percent and YouTube with 22 percent.

For BlackBerry users, the most popular app for the past 30 days was Facebook with 45 percent, followed by Weather Channel with 31 percent, Google Maps with 27 percent, Pandora with 18 percent and Twitter with 16 percent.

For Windows Mobile OS, the Facebook app led the way with 32 percent, followed by YouTube with 27 percent, Weather Channel with 21 percent, Google Maps with 18 percent and Pandora with 17 percent.

Both smart-phone and feature-phone users said that searching the application store on their phones was the most preferred method of app discovery, followed by a friend or family, and the carrier’s home page.

Thirty-five percent of smart-phone users converted from a lite/trial version of an app to a full version in the past 30 days, compared to 26 percent of feature-phone users. BlackBerry users are the least likely to make this jump, as jus 21 percent converted in August, compared to 42 percent of Windows Mobile users, 28 percent of Palm users, 43 percent of iPhone users and 34 percent of Android users.

The report also showed that mobile users between 13-17 years old were the most likely to “always look” at mobile advertising (13 percent), followed by users between 25-34 (8 percent) and users between 35-44 (7 percent).

Meanwhile, 33 percent of Android users say they have clicked on an ad within an app, followed by 29 percent of Windows Mobile users, 26 percent of iPhone users, 22 percent of Palm users and 15 percent of BlackBerry users.

Across all platforms, users prefer to see ads within apps as opposed to outside the app.

One in five users report using a search engine to find more information when viewing mobile advertising, followed by 19 percent who told someone about the advertised product or service, and 19 percent who looked online for more information.

Source:

http://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/NielsenMobileAppsWhitepaper.pdf