SavvyQuest™: Mobile Apps Usage
Leveraging Luth Research’s online panel, SurveySavvy™, this SavvyQuest omnibus survey was run from October 13 to October 16, 2009, with 1150 completes (including 102 non cell phone owners). Respondents who owned a cell phone participated in the full length of the study. They were asked the following questions regarding their cell phone and mobile apps usage:
- Brand of current cell phone
- Current cellular service provider
- Number of mobile apps downloaded to current cell phone
- How downloaded mobile apps were paid for
- Frequency of using downloaded mobile apps
- What the most often used mobile apps are
- Estimated mobile apps downloads for the next year as compared to this year
MOBILE APPS DOWNLOADS AND USAGES WERE DRIVEN BY SMART PHONE OWNERS
Overall, 40% of all respondents have downloaded at least one mobile app. Almost three out of four (73%) of smart phone owners have downloaded at least one. In contrast, the majority of regular phone owners (84%) in the study have never downloaded any mobile apps.
Looking at those respondents who had downloaded one or more mobile apps:
- About half (46%) are younger consumers (18 to 34 years), and another one quarter are 35-44 years.
- More males than females (54% vs. 46%, respectively)
- Slightly more than one third (34%) are AT&T subscribers, likely due to the popularity of iPhone apps.
- 23% owned Blackberry phones, followed by Motorola (19%), LG (19%), Samsung (19%) and Apple (18%).
- On average, 68% of the apps downloaded were free and only 32% were paid for. However, for regular phone owners, almost half of the apps downloaded (47%) were paid apps.
PEOPLE USE MOBILE APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT, INFORMATION AND NETWORKING
The top functions and features of most used mobile apps were:
- Provided entertainment (17% over all, or 55% of those had downloaded apps)
- Provided news or current information (12% overall, or 40% of downloaded)
- Was useful on the go (11% overall, or 37% of downloaded)
- Helped connect with friends/family (10% overall, or 32% of downloaded)
The predicted level of mobile apps download activity next year will remain relatively unchanged compared to this year. Slightly over half of the respondents would maintain the same level of downloading (55%), while about the same proportion would either download more (17%) or fewer (19%).
SMART PHONE OWNERSHIP LEVELS ARE HIGHER AMONG YOUNGER CONSUMERS, MALES AND HISPANICS
28% of the respondents indicated they currently own/use a smart phone. More males owned smart phone than females (54% vs. 46% female).
Looking at age, smart phone owners tended to be younger consumers:
- 19% 18 to 24 years
- 26% 25 to 34 years
- 24% 35 to 44 years
- 19% 45 to 54 years
- 6% 55 to 64 years
- 6% 65+ years
Hispanics have a higher tendency to own smart phone. The ethnicity disposition of smart phone owners is:
- 59% White/Caucasian
- 20% Hispanic
- 15% Black/African American
- 5% Asian
- 2% Other
AT&T is the leading service provider for smart phone owners. In this study, the smart phone market share among the Big Four service providers is:
- 38% AT&T
- 32% Verizon
- 19% Sprint/Nextel
- 16% T-Mobile
Blackberry is the leading smart phone brand, but faces challenges from LG, Apple and Samsung. The top five smart phone brands among the smart phone owners in the study are:
- 28% Blackberry
- 22% LG
- 20% Apple (iPhone)
- 19% Samsung
- 14% Motorola
About SavvyQuest
SavvyQuest is an Omnibus survey service provided by Luth Research leveraging SurveySavvy™, the company’s high-quality multimillion-member online panel. With SavvyQuest, an online survey with a target total of 1,000 completes is fielded based on a weekly schedule, which can be tailored to on-demand schedules if needed. The 1,000 completes are balanced to reflect the U.S. Census demographic distributions on gender, age and ethnicity. The sample can be later weighted to reflect online population distributions if it is so desired. For more information, please contact Becky Wu, Vice President of Research, at bwu@luthresearch.com.