Table of Contents
Introduction
-
- Definitions
-
- Figure 1: Application stores, operating system and ecosystem owners, May 2012
- Abbreviations
Executive Summary
-
- The market
-
- Figure 2: Worldwide smartphone application revenue, 2011
- Market factors
- Use of smartphones and tablets as second screens
- Mobile websites drive greater engagement rates
- Rise in use of social applications
- The consumer
-
- Figure 3: Smartphone ownership, by operating system, March 2012
-
- Figure 4: Amount spent on mobile device applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 5: Amount spent on mobile device in-app purchases in the last 12 months, March 2012
-
- Figure 6: Attitudes towards mobile device applications, March 2012
- What we think
Issues in the Market
-
- How can developers approach consumers who will only download free apps?
- How will the predicted growth of Windows Phone 7 devices change the market?
- Will tablets change how developers interact with smartphone applications?
- Are web applications likely to supplant dedicated device applications?
Future Opportunities
-
- Inspire Insights
- Trend: Many Mes
- Trend: Extend My Brand
- 2015 Trend: Old Gold
Internal Market Environment
-
- Key points
- Smartphone and tablet penetration
-
- Figure 7: Ownership of tablets and smartphones, 2011 and 2012
-
- Figure 8: Total applications available for download, by manufacturer, worldwide, January 2012
- 15% only download free apps
-
- Figure 9: Consumers who have downloaded applications onto any mobile device in the last 12 months, 2011
- Social apps overtake gaming apps for the first time
-
- Figure 10: Daily average smartphone application consumption, by minutes per category per user, worldwide, Q1 2011 and Q1 2012
- Content producers seek to avoid environment charges by moving to web-based alternatives
- New opportunities apparent in dual screening
- Application sales can be spurred by careful hardware manipulation
- Mobile websites drive greater engagement rates
- Discoverability and competition problems give rise to umbrella applications
- Facebook launches its own application store
Broader Market Environment
-
- Key points
- Consumer confidence remains low
-
- Figure 11: GfK NOP Consumer Confidence Index, January 2008-April 2012
- Older consumers will provide a market for targeted applications
-
- Figure 12: Trends in the age structure of the UK population, 2006-16
- Trial rollout of LTE may help data-heavy applications
Who’s Innovating?
-
- Key points
- Gesture-controlled cooking application accounts for dirty fingers
- Science Festival application attempts to influence dreams
- Application used to control and track concept bike
- Barclays money transfer application brings secure functionality to smartphones
Market Overview
-
- Key points
- In-app purchase revenue under 50% of download revenue in 2011
-
- Figure 13: Global download revenue and in-app purchase revenue for smartphone applications, 2011
- Apple and Android largest stores
-
- Figure 14: Total number of applications per app store, December 2008-May 2012
- Windows Marketplace has biggest year-on-year growth
-
- Figure 15: Year-on-year growth of application stores, measured by number of applications available, May 2011-May 2012
- Windows Marketplace growth triggers large swing in free/paid divide
-
- Figure 16: Split of free and paid applications, May 2012
- Figure 17: Split of free and paid applications, May 2011
- BlackBerry App World
- Windows Phone Marketplace
- Nokia Ovi Store
- Apple App Store
- Android Marketplace/Google Play
Market Segmentation
-
- Key points
- Apple owners most engaged, but app users most likely to have Google phones
-
- Figure 18: Usage of a smartphone-based application within the last three months, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 19: Smartphone operating system, by usage of a smartphone-based application within the last three months, May 2012
- iTunes keeps attention on applications whilst at the PC
-
- Figure 20: Origin of applications used within the last three months, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Harder core of users missing for Nokia and RIM
-
- Figure 21: Number of smartphone applications downloaded per month, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- iOS smartphone owners high-volume downloaders
-
- Figure 22: Number of applications downloaded onto a smartphone per month in the last three months, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
Application Category Usage
-
- Key points
-
- Figure 23: Usage of application categories across all smartphone owners, May 2012
- News and information-related applications
-
- Figure 24: Access of news and information applications, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 25: Average proportion of news and information applications accessed, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Leisure applications
-
- Figure 26: Access of leisure applications, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 27: Average proportion of leisure applications accessed, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Financial applications
-
- Figure 28: Access of financial applications, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 29: Average proportion of financial applications accessed, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Shopping applications
-
- Figure 30: Access of financial applications, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 31: Average proportion of shopping applications accessed, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Local area applications
-
- Figure 32: Access of applications related to a local area, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 33: Average proportion of local area applications accessed, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Social applications
-
- Figure 34: Access of applications related to social themes, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Figure 35: Average proportion of social applications accessed, by smartphone operating system, May 2012
- Averages
-
- Figure 36: Smartphone operating system, by usage of category type applications, May 2012
Companies and Products
-
- Apple Inc. (iOS)
- Google (Android)
- Microsoft (Windows Phone 7)
- Nokia (Symbian)
- Research In Motion (BlackBerry)
Smartphone Ownership
-
- Key points
- Consumers claiming calls or phones from work favour iOS
-
- Figure 37: Smartphone operating systems, by the person who pays for smartphone usage, May 2012
- Low earners favour Android handsets
-
- Figure 38: Smartphone operating systems, by gross annual household income, May 2012
- Youth ownership of BlackBerry is high
-
- Figure 39: Smartphone operating system, by age, May 2012
Amount Spent On Applications
-
- Key points
- Majority of consumers still relying on free applications
-
- Figure 40: Amount spent on applications, March 2012
- 25-34s likely to spend more
-
- Figure 41: Amount spent on mobile device applications in the last 12 months, by age, March 2012
- iOS users spend more
-
- Figure 42: Amount spent on mobile device applications in the last 12 months, by smartphone operating system, March 2012
Amount Spent through In-App Purchases
-
- Key points
- In-app purchases have yet to reach high levels of usage
-
- Figure 43: Amount spent on application purchases in the last 12 months, March 2012
- Minor variations by age and gender
-
- Figure 44: In-app purchases, by gender and age, March 2012
- Tablet ownership bucks expected trend for in-app spending
-
- Figure 45: Levels of in-app spending over the last 12 months, by smartphone and tablet operating system, March 2012
Attitudes towards Mobile Applications
-
- Key points
- Word of mouth and random browsing most used methods of app discovery
-
- Figure 46: Attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Just over a fifth dislike handing out credit card details to ecosystem owners to buy apps
- Just under a fifth prefer to use an application to the mobile web
- Application availability most important to younger consumers
-
- Figure 47: Agreement with the statement ‘Availability of apps was a major factor in my choice of handset’, by age, March 2012
CHAID Analysis
-
- Methodology
- Women with relatively high incomes most likely to take application recommendations
-
- Figure 48: Mobile Applications – CHAID – Tree output, March 2012
- Figure 49: Mobile Applications – CHAID – Table output, March 2012
Appendix – Smartphone Ownership
-
-
- Figure 50: Smartphone ownership, March 2012
- Figure 51: Tablet ownership, by smartphone ownership, March 2012
-
- Figure 52: Smartphone ownership, by demographics, March 2012
-
Appendix – Tablet Ownership
-
-
- Figure 53: Tablet ownership, March 2012
- Figure 54: Smartphone ownership, by tablet ownership, March 2012
-
- Figure 55: Tablet ownership, by demographics, March 2012
-
Appendix – Portable Media Player Ownership
-
-
- Figure 56: Portable media player ownership, March 2012
- Figure 57: Portable media player ownership, by demographics, March 2012
-
Appendix – Amount Spent On Applications
-
-
- Figure 58: Amount spent on applications, March 2012
- Figure 59: Amount spent on applications, by smartphone ownership, March 2012
-
- Figure 60: Amount spent on applications, by tablet ownership, March 2012
- Figure 61: Amount spent on applications, by portable media player ownership, March 2012
-
- Figure 62: Amount spent on applications, by demographics, March 2012
-
Appendix – Amount Spent through In-App Purchases
-
-
- Figure 63: Amount spent on in-app purchases, March 2012
- Figure 64: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by smartphone ownership, March 2012
-
- Figure 65: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by tablet ownership, March 2012
- Figure 66: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by portable media player ownership, March 2012
-
- Figure 67: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by amount spent on applications, March 2012
- Figure 68: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by demographics, March 2012
-
Appendix – Attitudes Towards Mobile Applications
-
-
- Figure 69: Attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 70: Smartphone ownership, by most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 71: Smartphone ownership, by next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 72: Tablet ownership, by most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 73: Tablet ownership, by next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 74: Portable media player ownership, by most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 75: Portable media player ownership, by next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 76: Amount spent on applications, by most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 77: Amount spent on applications, by next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 78: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 79: Amount spent on in-app purchases, by next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 80: Attitudes towards mobile applications, by most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 81: Attitudes towards mobile applications, by next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
- Figure 82: Attitudes towards mobile applications, by least most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, March 2012
-
- Figure 83: Most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, by demographics, March 2012
- Figure 84: Next most popular attitudes towards mobile applications, by demographics, March 2012
-
Back to top