Data Monday: Mobile Apps vs. Mobile Web

by June 28, 2010

A little more than 55 million smartphones shipped during the first three months of 2010. That's a lot of mobile devices that run both native and Web applications. So what are smartphone owners using more: mobile apps or mobile Web sites?

  • 78% of smartphone users accessed their browser in April 2010, while 80% of smartphone users accessed applications. (source)
  • In the three month period ending April 2010, more smartphone users accessed maps via applications, than maps via mobile browser. (source)
  • In February 2010, 26% of smartphone users accessed maps via applications. 19% of smartphone users accessed maps via mobile browser. (source)
  • WhitePages, a Top 10 iPhone reference application for almost two years with almost six million downloads has just as many iPhone consumers use their mobile website as their application. (source)
  • In the three month period ending April 2010, 6.2% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via mobile applications, 12.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via mobile Web browser. (source)
  • In the three month period ending April 2010, 4.4% of smartphone users accessed search sites via mobile applications, 14.9% of smartphone users accessed search sites via mobile Web browser. (source)
  • In the three month period ending April 2010, 3.9% of smartphone users accessed news sites via mobile applications, 11.2% of smartphone users accessed news sites via mobile Web browser. (source)
  • In the three month period ending April 2010, 1.2% of smartphone users accessed online retail sites via mobile applications, 3.1% of smartphone users accessed online retail sites via mobile Web browser. (source)
  • iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users download more than 16.6 million apps per day, nearly double the 8.9 million daily rate of iTunes tracks downloaded. (source)
  • Fun fact: Users of eBay's app on Apple's iPad spend three or four times as much money in a typical session than they would on an iPhone. (source)