Smartphone users in the US download an average of just one app a month, with 7 per cent of owners of these devices accounting for about half of all monthly downloads.

According to a June survey by ComScore, just over one-third of smartphone users have monthly app download activity, but 66 per cent don’t make any downloads each month. Eight per cent say they download one app a month while 9 per cent make two app downloads in a month. The most active 2.4 per cent of users download more than eight apps a month.

And a consumer’s favourite app now accounts for 42 per cent his/her total time using apps while four apps consume three-quarters of the average smartphone user’s total app time.
More than half of smartphone users say they use apps every day of the month while 26 per cent of tablet users said they did.

The ComScore survey also found that mobile apps now take up more than half of the total time US consumers spend on digital media. Smartphone users spend 24 per cent more time consuming digital media than a year, with just 40 per cent of that time now spent on desktop PCs.

Since March of 2013, desktop usage and app usage have traded places in the rankings (a year ago desktops were top with a 53-per cent share, followed by mobile apps with 40 per cent).

Over the past year, the time spent on mobile apps jumped 52 per cent and usage of mobile web increased 17 per cent. Desktop web usage was up just 1 per cent.

No surprise that social networking apps account for a quarter of total mobile app usage while games take up 17 per cent.

The split between time spent using apps vs the browser varied only slightly between smartphones and tablets – apps account for 88 per cent of smartphone usage compared with 82 per cent on tablets.