Research Shows Huge Growth in Millennial use of Mobile Apps

Research firm comScore recently released their annual report on mobile app use.

The results? Millennials still love mobile apps, to the tune of a whopping 90 hours per month spent on smartphone apps alone. Don’t worry, they love tablets too. Just not as much.

Of usage growth across all platforms, mobile represented 65 percent, followed by a modest 12 percent for tablets. The report also uncovered some enlightening statistics about how millennials are finding apps these days: primarily through the app store, while older users tend to discover apps via outside sources.

“Mobile now represents almost 2 out of 3 digital media minutes, and mobile apps alone now constitute a majority.”

This means big opportunities for mobile app developers and highlights the opportunities for apps targeting the millennial demographic. A well-thought-out mobile strategy for companies hoping to grow through mobile conversions is more important than ever. Says the report, “A small slice of app users can contribute a lot of usage. Publishers must look to millennials’ app habits to win in mobile long-term. ”

Wise words, but far from surprising to New York iPhone app developers, where constant smartphone use has gained millennials the nickname “facedown generation.”

While the statistics deliver some unexpected insights in regards to mobile web use (higher growth than anticipated), they deliver pretty much what you’d expect so far as declining desktop use. Considering average monthly unique visitors, comCast reports:

• Mobile: 41% increase
• Desktop: 1% increase

Among the less encouraging statistics for fledgling startups are the numbers for how many apps are actually receiving all this traffic. Mobile users tend to exhibit strong brand loyalty within apps, spending 18 times longer on the top 1,000 mobile apps compared to the top 1,000 web properties.

That being said, the report goes on to suggest that the difficulty of gaining mobile users has the potential to pay off as mobile usage drives brand loyalty. Ultimately it’s brand loyalty that drives sales and ad revenue, so getting those important few millennial mobile adapters is key.