Growing Number of App Users Deemed “Mobile Addicts”

April 23, 2014

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Men | Mobile Phone | Sports | Tablet | Teens & Younger | Videogames | Women | Youth & Gen X

Flurry-Daily-Mobile-App-Usage-Distribution-Apr2014On average, mobile application users around the world launch apps 10 times per day, says Flurry, based on data culled from 500,000 apps across more than 1.3 billion devices as of March 2014. But, a growing number of app users launch apps at least 60 times per day, or more than 6 times the average. This segment – deemed “Mobile Addicts” by Flurry – has more than doubled in size over the past year, and now accounts for roughly 1 in every 8 mobile app users measured. (That calculation is based on a chart published by Flurry which appears to show 1.4 billion mobile app users, rather than 1.3 billion described in the text. Flurry has yet to respond to a request for clarification.)

In fact, the growth rate of the “Addict” segment – of 123% year-over-year in March, far outstrips comparable rates for “Super Users” (those who launch apps 16-60 times per day) and “Regular Users” (those who launch less than 16 times per day). These segments have grown by 55% and 23%, respectively, year-over-year. Overall, Flurry estimates that there were 176 million “Mobile Addicts” last month. Stepping back for a moment, assuming that mobile app users are awake roughly 16 hours per day, that means that they’re launching apps at least once every 16 minutes throughout their waking hours. It’s little wonder then, that – at least in the US – time spent with mobile apps now exceeds desktop internet consumption.

Flurry’s study reveals some interesting demographic tilts within the “Mobile Addict” segment. Some 52% are female, meaning that they’re 8% more likely than the average mobile user to be female. The age breakdown is even more intriguing: 35-54-year-olds, while constituting 20% of the mobile user base, comprise 28% of the “Mobile Addict” population. In fact, relative to its share of the mobile user population, the 35-54 bracket over-indexes as “Mobile Addicts” more-so than the 13-17 age group. As for 25-34-year-olds? They comprise a smaller share of “Mobile Addicts” than of mobile users overall. (18-24-year-olds over-index the most.)

Finally, Flurry identifies some personas that over-index in mobile addiction:

  • Among females, addicts are 10 times more likely than non-addicts to be mothers;
  • Sticking with females, addicts are 7 times more likely than non-addicts to be gamers and 6.5 times more likely to be sports fans;
  • Among males, addicts are 9 times more likely than non-addicts to be auto enthusiasts and 6 times more likely to be gamers.
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