As if there was ever any doubt! Yes, a recent survey published by Nielsen confirms what we already suspected: games are the most downloaded apps on mobile devices.
And, unsurprisingly, Facebook, Google Maps and Weather Channel are the most popular apps across smartphones.
“While Apple may be best known for mobile apps, BlackBerry, Android and other devices also have a huge range of apps available in their stores, as well as in those operated by mobile service providers,” Nielsen explained in a blog post.
“With smartphones expected to overtake feature phones in the US by 2011, the popularity of mobile apps will only grow.”
As such, Nielsen recently launched its “App Playbook,” which surveyed more than 4,200 people who had downloaded an application in the past 30 days.
Other key findings include:
- Social Networking: Facebook clearly favorite app, but MySpace is hugely popular among teens; LinkedIn attracts adults 25-44.
- News/weather: Weather Channel was used by 58%; age distribution across sites was similar, save for Time Mobile and Thomson Reuters.
- Shopping: Amazon and eBay lead (57% and 41%).
- Search/Map: Skew male, particularly Instamapper (80/20).
- Video/Movie: Skewed towards males; Imeem and Moviefone show a higher proportion of young users.
- Music: iTunes, Pandora, Sirius XM appeal more to males, while Yahoo Music almost evenly split (51/49).
