The popularity of apps has increased significantly over the past twelve months, with the average number of apps on US consumers’ devices now at 41, compared to 32 a year ago – a rise of 28 percent. Users are also spending more time using apps when compared to mobile internet access – accounting for 81 percent of the time spent across the two services, compared with 73 percent last year – according to research from Nielsen.

The vast majority (88 percent) of people who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days have done so from an Android or iOS device, with the number customers for these platforms having more than doubled in the past year. The proportion of US mobile subscribers with smartphones has also increased from 38 percent to around 50 percent.

However, app users remain concerned about privacy, with 73 percent saying they are worried about personal data being collected via smartphone apps and 55 percent being wary of sharing their location information using apps.

 The top five apps however, are unchanged, with Facebook, YouTube, Android Market (Google Play), Google Search and Gmail, remaining at the top.