iPad users spend 42 per cent more time using apps than iPhone owners, according to research from Flurry, although there were some pronounced differences in usage patterns across the two devices.
According to the company’s analysis of use in May 2013, the iPhone – unsurprisingly – performs well in categories related to mobility. Navigation, health and fitness (for example tracking walks, runs and bike rides) and photo and video apps all showed higher use on the smartphone.
However, iPad users spent more time using education, newsstand, games and reference titles than their tablet counterparts.
Flurry also noted that there is a difference between how time spent using the two devices is distributed during the day.
For both devices, the most use comes in the evening (between 6pm and 11pm) – “times when most people have downtime for activities such as games and reading”.
But it noted that the percentage of app use that occurs during this period, as well as absolute amount of use, is greater for the iPad than the iPhone, to an extent that is “statistically significant”.
The iPhone does come back on top again into the early hours of the morning, which Flurry suggests “may be insomniacs reaching for phones at their bedsides or those singles and hip urban lifestylers finding their way home from a late night”.
The company noted that an increasing number of people will own both devices, and although it cannot link data across the two, Flurry said that “we believe that individuals may express different parts of their personalities and lifestyles through their use of different devices”.
It said that this is an important consideration for app developers and advertisers, who will “increasingly factor contextual differences… into their development and targeting plans”.
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