Report: Mobile Usage on the Rise; Time Spent Increased 24 Percent

Recent research shows that Internet users in the U.S. are consuming more media on their mobile devices than on desktops, and within that mobile usage, apps account for the primary method of consumption by a wide margin.

The "U.S. Mobile App Report" comes from comScore, a U.S. analytics company, and it shows that people are using their mobile devices 60 percent of the time when consuming digital media. This includes content taken in through apps and through Web browsers. Apps alone are responsible for 52 percent of the time spent using digital media. Furthermore, the amount of time spent over the past year has increased significantly -- from approximately 1 trillion minutes to 1.2 trillion minutes when considering mobile and desktop usage.

comScore provides more detail about this phenomena in the early stages of its report.

"Total U.S. digital media time spent has jumped 24 percent in the past year, driven by a surge in mobile app usage, which increased 52 percent. While mobile usage has been growing fast, it has not come at the expense of desktop computer usage, which still managed to grow by 1 percent."

Across the board, people are taking in digital media at rates higher than ever before; the report even goes claims that users have a hard time living without their mobile devices. comScore cites the percentage of smartphone users -- 57 percent -- who access at least on app on their mobile devices every single day of the month. This is bolstered by the number of tablet users who engage in the same practice on their chosen devices: 26 percent. The number grows even higher when one considers accessing apps at least 26 days out of the month; 79 percent of smartphone users and 52 percent of tablet users do this.

Social Media, Games, and Radio categories of apps account for more than half the time users spend on their devices. This changes somewhat when comparing iPhone versus Android users. iPhone users tend to spend more time with General News, Radio, Photos, Social Networking, and Weather apps whereas Android users spend more time in Search and Email categories. Six major brands account for nine out of the 10 most used apps: Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay. Facebook is the dominant leader concerning both audience size and the time users spend with the company's apps.

The full comScore report can be found here.