Android Users Spend Significantly Less Time On Apps

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Android Has Market Share Edge, But Lags in App Usage (Flurry)
New research from Flurry confirms that Android does have the edge in active device market share, but iOS encourages app power usage. Flurry states that there were 564 million active Android devices globally at the end of April (versus 900 million total activations). However, despite the edge in market share, the average Android users only spend approximately 70% of the time in apps as an iOS user. No wonder most developers prefer to start projects for iOS. (See chart, above.) Read >

Three Reasons Why iOS Owners Use Their Devices More (ReadWrite)
The Flurry report also posits three possible reasons for the gap: Apple was the market leader on mobile apps, so it naturally draws power users; Android's fragmentation problem limits app content; Apple has the network effect: more power users means more apps means more power users, etc. Read >

YouTube Triples Mobile Ad Sales In The Past Six Months (Bloomberg)
Mobile ads brought it an estimated $350 million during the period, the company said. A quarter of YouTube's billion users access the site on mobile devices. As we've discussed before, video ads are a bright spot in mobile monetization efforts. Read >

Ahead Of iOS 7 Release, iOS 6 Generates 93 Percent of Apple Traffic (Chitika)
That's up from 83 percent in March. Although imperfect, it demonstrates that Apple is very effective at transitioning users to the latest iteration of its operating system. Compare this to Android, where 37 percent of users are running software released over two years ago. Read >

60 Million Americans Own Tablets (comScore)
comScore tweeted out today that there are 60 million tablet owners in the U.S., while 137 million Americans now own smartphones. That implies tablet penetration of 26%. Read >

The Latest Government Spying Scandal In The U.S. (Associated Press)
Yesterday the news was about the National Security Agency listening on Verizon's phone conversations. Today the news is that the U.S. government reportedly has access to the servers of major tech companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook. According to the reports, intelligence agencies can extract files in order to understand people's movements and their contacts. Read >

Apple Said to Start iPhone Trade-In Program (Bloomberg)
The program will pay users to turn in their older models for an iPhone 5. The older models are then refurbished and sold in emerging markets. Ganot estimates that 20% of U.S. smartphone sales this year will be trade-ins. Read >

Samsung Value Shrinks Over Smartphone Worries (Reuters)
Investors are nervous over the Korean giant's mobile direction. Read >

Uber Plans To Lower Rates On Its Fares (TechCrunch)
The ride-hailing app bows to price pressure. Read >

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