The percentage of US mobile subscribers engaging in a variety of activities on their devices continues to increase, according to the latest comScore MobiLens data. Listening to music on mobiles grew 9.5% between the 3-month periods ending in March and June (to 27.6%), while accessing of social networks or blogs rose to 36.9% of subscribers. Indeed, a Prosper Mobile Insights report [download page] finds that 62.6% of smartphone and tablet owners who access Facebook prefer to do so via their smartphone (50%) or tablet (12.6%).
Other mobile activities also saw an increase in popularity among mobile subscribers, per the comScore data. Use of downloaded apps grew by close to 3%, from 50% to 51.4%, widening the gap with browser use, which grew 0.9% points to 50.2% of the mobile audience. Meanwhile, playing mobile games climbed by about 2.5% to 33.4%, while texting increased by a more muted 0.9%, to 75%.
Mobile Owners Prefer Accessing Google, Twitter Via Device
Additional results from the Prosper Mobile Insights report indicate that 54.9% of smartphone and tablet owners who access Google prefer to use their smartphone (45.4%) or tablet (9.5%) the most. Similarly, a majority of users who access their personal email inbox also prefer to do so via smartphone (47.6%) or tablet (10.1%), while more than three-quarters who access Twitter do so most via their smartphone (59.3%) or tablet (14.8%). This suggests that Twitter users are more comfortable accessing the site on mobiles than Facebook users. Most likely by virtue of Facebook’s audience size, however, an Adobe study [pdf] released in August reveals that Facebook (85%) is the most popular social network accessed from a mobile device, ahead of Twitter (35%) and Google+ (21%).
In other results from the Prosper Mobile Insights study, among those who access the following activities, though, desktops or laptops are preferred by a majority for accessing: Yahoo (57%); work email (55.8%); Pinterest (51.6%); LinkedIn (57%); a retailer’s website (67.4%); and a blog (57.6%).
Apple Continues to Gain Mobile Market Share
Meanwhile, for the 3-month average period ending in June 2012, 234 million Americans aged 13 and older used mobile devices. Apple saw the largest gain for the period, up 10% to 15.4% share of subscribers. LG dropped 0.5% points to 18.8% share, meaning that the OEMs are now separated by only 3.4% points, as Apple continues to close the gap.
Samsung remained in its top spot, though dropped 0.4% points to 25.6%. Motorola dropped almost 9% of its share to 11.7%, while HTC gained roughly 7% of its share, up to 6.4%.
Android Share of Smartphone Market Keeps Rising
Google’s share of the US smartphone market (primarily representing the Android platform) inched up 1.2% between the 3 months ending March 2012 and the 3 months ending June 2012, increasing to 51.6% in that period. Apple rose 5.5% to 32.4% share, as Google and Apple both gained at the expense of RIM, which continued its free fall to the tune of a 13.3% relative drop in share to 10.7%. Microsoft (down 0.1% points) and Symbian (down 0.5% points) also fell at the hands of Google and Apple.
General US smartphone ownership grew to more than 110 million in June 2012, up 4% compared to March. On a global basis, August data from Canalys finds that Android accounted for 68.1% of smartphone shipments in Q2, compared to just 16.4% for Apple.
Other Findings:
- According to the Prosper Mobile Insights report, 76.7% of smartphone and tablet owners describe the quality of the websites they access on their devices as either somewhat (42.9%) or very (33.7%) good.
- This group is neutral about the prospect for their devices to one day replace their desktops or laptops. 39.9% think this is somewhat or very likely, while 38.7% believe that to be not very or not at all likely. The remaining 21.5% are neutral.
About the Data: The Prosper Mobile Insights survey was conducted 7/18-7/23/12 among 326 smartphone and tablet users on their devices. The Adobe data point is from a survey of more than 1,200 mobile users in the US, conducted in March 2012.
