Mobile Personalization

Smartphone application users in United States now outnumber mobile apps users, says a latest report from digital market analyst firm comScore. The study, according to comScore (News - Alert), found that the number of Smartphone users accessing mobile content through browsers and applications now surpasses that of Non-smartphone users.

Of those who downloaded applications during the three months period ending Aug 2010, Smartphone subscribers accounted for about 60 percent and 55 percent of them used a browser.

In August, 75.6 million mobile subscribers, aged 13 and older, used downloaded applications, with Smartphone users representing 60.4 percent, up from 43.6 percent in August 2009.

For the same period, 80.8 million mobile subscribers used their browser, and 55.5 percent of them were smartphone subscribers, up from 41.4 percent a year ago.

"The fact that Smartphone owners now represent the majority of the U.S. mobile audience accessing downloaded applications and browsers represents a watershed moment in the industry," said Mark Donovan (News - Alert), comScore senior vice president of mobile.

Although Smartphones still make up less than a quarter of the U.S. mobile market, comScore says they are consuming a lion's share of mobile content. As Smartphones' share of the pie destined to get greater in the days to come, marketers and content providers can now easily figure out where the demand is coming from.

In August 2010, males accounted for 56 percent of smartphone subscribers who used downloaded applications or browsers. Females however are narrowing the gap with the remaining 44 percent, representing a 5.5 percentage point increase versus the corresponding August 2009 period.

 Among the various age segments, 13-17 year olds are exhibiting the strongest growth in using downloaded apps or browsers, up 1.4 percentage points versus year ago to 6.9 percent of the audience.

 Persons ages 18-24 are also accelerating adopters of app/browser usage, representing 16.7 percent of the audience, a 0.6-percentage point increase.

According to its report, weather and maps represented the top content categories accessed through downloaded applications in August, used by more than one-third of U.S.  smartphone subscribers.

 Social networking applications were used by 30 percent, while search and news applications were used by 18 percent.

Search was the most popular category accessed through browsers, reaching 54 percent of the smartphone audience. 43 percent of smartphone subscribers accessed social networking sites via browser, followed by news (40 percent), weather (36 percent) and sports information (32 percent).

The study also described the demographic profile and top content categories for Smartphone subscribers accessing applications and browsers.