App Downloads Are More Important Than Ever For Developers

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App usage and downloads is massive business these days. Just ask King about their Candy Crush Saga app if you need proof. Not to mention, this seems like a trend that is likely to continue going forward and exponentially year after year. As such, working on bringing your app to the market can be a very beneficial task for android developers and one which can generate significant android monetization. That is if you bring your app to the market in the right way. For instance, we all know that content is king and it is. However, if recent reports have taught us anything, it is that the way you market your app is as important as the content. Choosing the right method of monetization can be the difference between a good app which is successful and a good app which is unknown.

That said, an interesting report came to light this week from Nielsen which sheds some interesting findings on the app world in general. On the surface of the report, Nielsen notes that the average time consumers spend with an app has significantly grown over the last two years. This is not hugely surprising, as with the increase in app selection coupled with an increase in smartphone ownership, an increase in app average times would also be expected to be on the increase. According to the figures, Nielsen suggests app usage on average per month came in at 37 hours and 28 minutes in Q4 of last year. Compared with two years ago, Nielsen reports app average usage per month was set at 23 hours and two minutes. As such, it seems for app developers, consumers are gaining the amount of time they dedicate to spending on apps. Great for those developers, then.

The really interesting part though is that Neilsen also notes that on average (and in the same Q4 of 2014) users only accessed 26.7 apps. According to the findings, that is a number which has remained pretty much consistent over the two years (see image below). So it would seem that although, users are spending more time with apps, in general, they are not increasing in the number of apps they download (or at least access on any given month). Even more interestingly, is that the same report details that more than 70% of the total app usage by the average consumer comes from the top 200 apps. Further highlighting the importance of making sure app marketing is at the forefront of a developer’s mind. As the apps which do well, are the apps which end up receiving consistent and future usage.

In terms of some more finer details which should be of interest to developers, Nielsen noted that men tend to install (on average) slightly more apps than females, 27.2% compared to 26.3% of apps. However, it would also seem that it is the women who spend on average, more time using the apps, 38 hours and two minutes compared to 36 hours and 51 minutes. In addition, the findings also found that over the two years, entertainment apps prove to be the most popular, with both an increase year-on-year in app usage, but also an increase in the amount of time spent using those apps (nearly three hours more for an average entertainment app). Of course, ‘entertainment’ is a wide genre and if you want to know what proves to be the most popular (in terms of time spent), then it is games. Nielsen found that a whopping 76% of entertainment app users surveyed played at least one game in the last quarter of 2014. Music apps came in second while video and movie apps also saw significant growth. Although, the report is only reflective of one three-month period compared to another and of a select number of users, the one overriding theme which does emerge is that to be successful, app developers do need to make sure they are part of that select few apps that users download. In doing so will ensure your app remains downloaded.