Many ‘Appy Returns

Consumers provided more evidence last week that they can’t get enough apps for amusement or to improve productivity.

“Users of iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches spent nearly $500 million on applications and in-app services during the first week of the year,” reports Associated Press technology reporter Michael Liedtke.

That’s a lot of money spent on apps – the highest weekly volume recorded by Apple since the company opened its App Store seven years ago.

Mobile analytics firm Flurry said mobile app usage increased 76 percent in 2014, driven in large part by business and productivity apps.

“Smartphone users opened more utilities and productivity apps in 2014, confirming that our phones and tablets have become indispensable devices that help us work and keep our lives organized,” Flurry president and CEO Simon Khalaf told Talking New Media.

Adults also are spending more time using their beloved apps – almost two days a month.

Last year, Nielsen found that Americans 18 and older spend an average of 43 hours and 31 minutes each month using apps or absorbed in mobile browsing, Jack Linshi at Time Magazine wrote. That was up from 33 hours and 48 minutes per month in the same quarter in 2013.

So consumers like their apps, but the new data from Apple only tells a portion of the story. Let’s not forget about Google’s Android phones.

“Roughly 84 percent of smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2014 run on Android, compared with 12 percent for Apple’s iOS, according to research firm IDC. Analytics firm App Annie said Android users downloaded 60 percent more apps in the third quarter than Apple users,” according to Wall Street Journal reporter Daisuke Wakabayashi.

A majority of subscribers used Android (52 percent) and iOS (43 percent) devices to access their apps. Three percent of U.S. smartphone owners used a handset that operated on a Windows phone, followed by two percent who used a BlackBerry.

Modest growth in smartphone adoption will help drive the app market going forward. U.S. mobile subscribers grew from 69 percent at the start of 2014 to 76 percent by October 2014, according toNielsen’s research. But it’s not growth in the number of smartphones that made 2014 The Year of the App. It’s all about new trends in consumer behavior… and keeping them ‘appy.