Tablet Users Spend Fewer Sessions, More Time per Session With Apps Than Smartphone Owners
Flurry recently posted a comparison of smartphone and tablet usage, using September data from Flurry Analytics.
Among the key findings is that the gender split is more even for tablet users, tablet usage spikes during prime-time television and tablet users spend more minutes per session with apps than smartphone users.
According to Flurry’s report, which analyzed more than 6 billion application sessions across about 500 million “smart” mobile devices in September, the average age of smartphone users is 30, while the average age of tablet users is 34. A third of smartphone users fall into the 25-34 age bracket, while 41 percent of tablet users are 35+ years old.
The gender split for smartphone owners is 56 percent male and 44 percent female, while the split for tablet owners is 51 percent male and 49 percent female.
Flurry also took a look at device usage by hour and found that smartphone usage is fairly steady throughout the day, though usage dips during late night/early morning hours. Smartphone usage has a slight peak from 7-10 p.m., but this peak is more dramatic for tablet usage.
“This would indicate that tablets are more often used alongside, or instead of television viewing than smartphones,” Flurry notes in its report.
Tablet users seem to spend a much larger share of their time with games, while smartphone users have a more even split between games, social networking and utilities, according to Flurry. Smartphone users spend 39 percent of their time with games, 24 percent with social networking and 17 percent with utilities. Tablet users, on the other hand, spend 67 percent of their time with apps with games apps, 10 percent with social networking, 9 percent with entertainment and 4 percent with utilities.
When it comes to app engagement, smartphone users have 12.9 sessions per week, while tablet users have 9.5 sessions per week. However, tablet users spend 8.2 minutes per session, while smartphone users spend 4.1 minutes per session.
“With consumers using tablets more for media consumption, and during the evenings, this stands to reason,” Flurry notes in its report. “Conversely, consumers use their smartphones for shorter periods of time across more sessions over the course of a day to complete tasks like checking into social networks and using utility apps.”
The report concludes that the differences in usage on smartphones and tablets is helpful for developers who want to have more educated approaches to app experiences. Flurry also notes that this highlights how “digital distribution could disrupt the living room.”
Separate data from comScore shows that mobile phones and tablets accounted for 13.3 percent of total Internet page views in August, nearly twice the share those devices claimed in August 2011.
Mobile phones accounted for 9 percent of page views in August, while tablet accounted for 4.3 percent of page views. PCs held 86.7 percent of total Internet page views in August, but that share was down 6.4 percentage points year-over-year.
Marketers and brands that haven’t honed the mobile experiences they present to users should take these kinds of reports as stark reminders to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.
By Jason Hahn
