Tablet users account for 29 per cent of the time spent playing mobile games, despite these devices being used by just 18 per cent of the active app user base, according to analytics firm Flurry.

This, along with the success some tablet-first games companies such as Supercell are seeing, “may also inspire developers of other types of apps to consider focusing on tablets”, it said.

However, tablets underperform when it comes to books and video, a finding that the company described as “somewhat surprising” taking into account the larger screens of such devices.

Tablets generate 10 per cent of the time spent viewing books, and 8 per cent of the time viewing video.

Flurry suggested that this is because a large amount of video viewing takes place while on the move, where a smartphone is a more convenient device, while in the home there are also alternatives to the tablet – such as a television or computer.

By far the bulk of the time spent playing games, watching video and reading books came from “medium phone” users (3.5-inch to 4.9-inch screens), which includes the iPhone, a significant portion of the Android device base (including Samsung’s Galaxy line), and smartphones powered by Windows Phone.

The company suggested that “as OEMs experiment with an ever-expanding array of form factors, developers need to remain focused on devices most accepted and used by consumers”.

With this in mind, it was noted that “phablets appear to make up an insignificant part of the device installed base, and do not show disproportionately high enough app usage to justify support”.

In addition, smaller smartphones, such as the older BlackBerry devices, “under-index in terms of app usage compared to the proportion of the installed base they represent, and would suggest they are not worth developers’ support”.

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