Mobile app usage continues to grow

Mobile users are spending most of their time on their handsets using apps, new figures have revealed.

According to eMarketer, mobile apps account for 84.9 per cent of the time people spend on smartphones. This is 10.3 per cent more than last year.

The upturn also means people are spending more time on apps than using mobile browsers. 

Social networking apps were identified as a major contributor to this trend. Indeed, figures showed that the average person spends 17 minutes a day using Facebook on their phone, compared with just six minutes on desktop PCs or laptops.

Google apps and instant messaging systems are also contributing to the surge in app use, along with the popularity of apps offered by major brands such as Amazon.

Cathy Boyle, principal analyst at eMarketer, commented: "American consumers spend the bulk of their app time conducting five activities: listening to digital audio, social networking, gaming, video viewing and messaging."

Ms Boyle stated that apps provide a "direct access point" from the home screen of a mobile device, adding that a native app experience is "typically slicker and faster than a comparable web experience".