How much time in a day does a person spend on his mobile device? Judging by what we see at cafes, tube stations, airport lounges, shopping malls and in offices and other workplaces, the mobile device is surely eating up huge chunks of not only our time, but also our attention and focus. Infact, activities such as attending a party, hosting a dinner or eating out at a restaurant are incomplete if people are not snapping photos of everything they see, uploading and sharing them, commenting on them, uploading even more pictures, adding captions and then going on a few live chats, narrating their experiences in real-time then turning back to the event, and sharing what has just happened online.
We now have some clear statistics about man's new best friend - the mobile phone. According to Strategy Analytics, a global research and consulting company specializing in technology segments, its AppOptix platform tracked more than 1500 Android smartphone users in the US during the month of May 2014 and found that on average, a user spents 138 minutes on their device! That is a whole 2 hours and 20 minutes staring into the small device. More interestingly, the observation, which is powered by Strategy Analytics' Consumer Telemetry Platform, showed that there was a 20% increase in the time spent between December 2013 to May 2014.
As expected, the results of the research showed that Facebook, YouTube and Messaging apps took more than 50% of the share of the total time spent on the Androids, but highlighted that for other segments such as Lifestyle, Productivity, News, Weather and Sports, the time spent is quite spread out among many applications in the market without the monopoly of any single publisher.
Strategy Analytics added that its Consumer Telemetry Platform leverages three core components – a best-in-class telemetry application, an opt-in panel, and big data analytics framework to support rich analysis, while its AppOptix addresses the contextual nuances of the consumer behavior through a full-suite of tools, including dashboards, reports, and leading analyst insights on device brands, operators and models. These advanced analytics are expected to enable service providers, solution providers, app makers, content providers and device makers to design and roll out newer features and offers that meet the fast growing and the dynamic market for mobile services.
“The three big categories are social, communication, and browsing – together they account for nearly a third of the time spent. Our analysis on the top 25 apps across each of the categories shows games and lifestyle segments are among the most vulnerable in maintaining mindshare as they are quick to come and disappear from our rankings."
- Bonny Joy, Chief, Consumer Telemetry Platforms
“Without doubt time spent on mobile is on the upward trajectory. Our data shows that of the total time spent, the gain is attributed primarily to the increased usage in social, communication and browsing categories."
- Barry Gilbert, Vice President, Strategy Analytics
