Mobile App Use Rises at Night

January 24, 2011

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Data-driven | Media & Entertainment | Mobile Phone | Retail & E-Commerce | Technology | Telecom

zokem-smartphone-use-relative-jan-2011.JPGThe use of apps and mobile web goes up in relative terms in the evening and nighttime, whereas traditional communication services capture more user attention in the daytime, according to new international Mobile Life Panel data from mobile analytics provider Zokem. Zokem has compared the relative use of smartphones at different parts of the day, calculating for each of the main smartphone use cases (browsing, voice, messaging and apps) an index reflecting the likelihood for people to use them, or launch the application, given they actually do something with their phones during that particular hour.

For this, Zokem compares the number of usage sessions per category to the total number all usage sessions in a particular hour. As expected, voice and messaging dominate daytime usage, but fall towards the night as people communicate less through calls and messaging in the nighttime.

Voice Drops Quicker than Messaging

Voice drops quicker than messaging, with Zokem analysis indicating this may be because it is a more business-oriented service. In absolute terms, daytime usage is still higher than evening time usage for all categories, but interestingly mobile apps and web browsing are stronger in the evening and nighttime, at least in relative terms.

Living After Midnight

zokem-smartphone-use-absolute-jan-2011.JPGLooking at app usage by share of engagement, Zokem data shows that apps capture their highest share of hourly active usage, more than 25%, at about 3 AM. App share drops dramatically during the day and rises to near-peak levels shortly before midnight. In terms of absolute hourly usage sessions, app usage peaks between 6 and 8 PM.

SMS, MMS and email combined represent the highest share of hourly active usage, except between midnight and 4AM, when app usage has a slightly higher share. In terms of absolute hourly usage, SMS/MMS/email virtually ties app usage during those hours.

“The evening hours are actually very crucial for advertising purposes, as people are not so much into work, and are more likely to make decisions, such as whether to go to movies, pick a nice restaurant for a dinner, or purchase a new track on iTunes,” says Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Zokem. “If you take a closer look, it is shown that in the evenings apps still continue to capture user attention, actually more so than in day time, even though e.g. voice and messaging usage is already going down. Also mobile web browsing continues to capture user attention, even off the day time hours, but apps are relatively more important than mobile web sites for the purposes of advertising.”

Android Top New Smartphone App Platform

A leading 29% of smartphone application publishers say they will begin supporting the Android platform this year, according to the Millennial Media November 2010 Mobile Mix report. This outdistances the second-most-popular new smartphone app platform for next year, iPad (20%), by a healthy margin. Twenty percent of smartphone app publishers also plan to begin supporting Windows Phone7 next year. No other platform has anywhere close to this level of planned new support, with RIM coming in a distant fourth (12%).

45th Parallel Design Ad

Explore More Charts.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This