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Topic: Hardware

Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

Summary: Android device owners use only the top 50 apps to spend a lot of time on the web each day.

James Kendrick

By for Mobile News |

We have been led to believe that smartphone apps are important, and a study by Nielsen proves that to be the case for Android device owners in particular. The survey shows the average Android owner spends almost an hour a day on the web, with the majority of that time spent using apps and not the browser.

Of the 56 minutes the Android owners spends daily on the web two-thirds of that time is devoted to using apps. The Android Market may have hundreds of thousands of apps, but Nielsen found that surprisingly 43 percent of that daily web time was spent in only the top 10 apps available. Another 19 percent of the time was spent in the next top 40 apps, meaning a whopping 61 percent of all time spent on the web by Android owners is through only the top 50 apps.

This graphically points out the battle that app developers have to get noticed in the crowded Android Market. It's not enough to build a good app, it is crucial that the app get noticed in the Market so Android device owners will give it a shot.

Topics: Hardware, Browser, Mobility, Smartphones

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21 comments
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  • Out of curiosity, I wonder how many of the top 50 Android apps are free?

    It has been said that one defining difference between iOS and Android consumers is their willingness to spend money for their app purchases. (The iOS crowd will pay for quality apps while the Android crowd would prefer a free alternative and accept perhaps a slightly less functionality tradeoff. This is pure hear say opinions that I have read and I have absolutely no collaborative evidence to back that up.)

    Still, I wonder how many of those top 50 Android apps were free.
    kenosha77a
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @kenosha7777

      iPhone users are richer, brainier, more tasteful than Android-ers... in fact Android users are savers not spenders.
      Hasam1991
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

        @Hasam1991
        The irony in your post is hilarious.
        hoaxoner
        Reply Vote

      • Mmm... tasty brains...

        nt
        spdragoo@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

        @Hasam1991 yup, tastier. That's why iPhone's biggest difference is number of farting applications is more than Android.
        AmediaN
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @kenosha7777 - I'd say it depends who you talk to. I am an Android user that would prefer to pay for a quality app (and no advertising) rather than accept the free equivilant.
      JT82
      Reply Vote

  • Why are you surprised that the top apps

    would be the ones used the most?
    baggins_z
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @baggins_z Especially because that's what makes them the top apps.
      Aerowind
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

    I have a Asus Transformer which I like a lot. However, I spend very little time on it doing anything other than surfing the web in Dolphin HD. I don't know what the top 10 android apps are, but a large number of them have not been converted for Tablets yet and stink, so I just use the web versions. I set the user agent in Dolphin to Desktop so I get the full version of web pages. Works great.

    The only apps I use with any frequency are the Gmail App (great interface), Evernote, Olive Tree (paid), Drop Box (subscription), and Dice Player (paid).
    txscott
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

    How can one trust android apps from third parties or individual developers??? . No security is built into the platform and an android app can steal all the data in the phone if it wants to.

    Unlike MS and Apple, there is no vetting of apps in android and for those reasons only idiots will choose such a platform.
    owlnet
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @owlnet The same way one can trust third party and individual programs you find on the internet?
      Aerowind
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @owlnet
      Android can allow alternate markets. For example amazon is supposedly more vetted and secure. Also I agree with the comment from @Aerowind.
      willyampz
      Reply Vote

  • QUESTION

    Android users, are all our purchases saved in the Market and can you download them to any device? with Apple I no longer need to back up my apps, I just go to App store and download the app any time once I've paid for it- same with music. If I buy an app for my iPhone it will also send the app to my iPad and install it automatically and on up to 10 devices....

    Can Android do stuff like that? I know you always have to worry about the little SD card etc
    Hasam1991
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @Hasam1991
      Nothing to do with the SD card. Yes, if you are using paid app, its always saved and available - not sure on how many devices as I only have one. Free apps are not saved and you have to search for them again. Also, you can browse the market from the PC and click install. The app will automatically be sent to your device OTA within a short time.
      willyampz
      Reply Vote

    • No no no. You completely misunderstand.

      @Hasam1991 The Android market works almost identically to Apple's App Store in this regard and it has nothing to do with SD Cards.

      My phone is configured with a gmail account. Whenever I purchase something from the Android Market, that purchase is tied to the gmail account. Iff I wipe/factory reset my phone for some reason or wipe it an buy a new phone, when my gmail account is associated with the phone again after the wipe (or on the new phone) then all my paid apps download and install again automatically.

      If I have a second android device and configure it with the same gamila account, the paid apps will download and install automatically there too. For example I have a Nook Color rooted and with Cyanogen Mod installed. As soon as I configured my gmail account, the Nook color received all the apps I already purchased on the phone.

      As @Hasam1991 mentioned, any free apps you use would have to be downloaded again. But anything you have paid for is never lost.
      cornpie
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @Hasam1991
      I thought you used the Galaxy S phone. Of course that functionality is built in. Best part? I don't have to install iTunes on my machine.
      hoaxoner
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

        @hoaxoner yes i was miserable on the Galaxy, the apps crashed and the battery life was 4 hours at best... browse a bit, talk a bit, next thing you know your purchasing another charger at Walgreen cuz u forgot it at home lol

        Nice to know Android saves apps etc...
        Hasam1991
        Reply Vote

  • Tells you something I've said all along.

    That being that the arguments over "my app store has more apps than your market" etc are meaningless. If the platform has the relatively few apps that I will actually use, I really could care less if it has 100 or 100 million other apps that I don't want.
    cornpie
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

      @cornpie A lot of "I" in your statement. Does it represent the masses?
      IAmMarty
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Android owners hit the web hard, with only a few apps

    May be it is because most free Apps on Android has almost same functionality with paid versions exception of "ad-removal"

    Beside that, Android Market "paid-versions" can not be bought from many countries because of restrictions. And I see many uninformed comments who are blinded by full-of-lie iPhone ads around the media like "OMG!1! Android Hath not have appz", actually when you look at it, almost all iPhone apps has android versions in functionality except Android does not have that much "fart apps" which is biggest difference on market-store app numbers
    AmediaN
    Reply Vote
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