Smartphones on the verge of taking over the world

The average smartphone has 41 apps, and each day more new mobile devices are activated than there are children born into the world.

For those that may be wondering how mobile devices and in particular smartphones are changing the way consumers behave, New Relic has commissioned some research as well as drawing on analytics from a number of apps monitoring companies, including Flurry, to provide a snapshot of modern-day connected life.

Perhaps the most startling statistic is that currently, 1.3 million Android devices are activated every day -- that means that every 24 hours, more than four times as many new smartphones and tablets are set up than babies (300,000 a day) are born. And once the devices are activated, they are checked on average 150 times a day -- once every 6.5 minutes. Use is focused on apps, of course, some 127 minutes a day but surfing the web via a browser also accounts for just over an hour's use every day.

And in terms of apps, the average smartphone contains 41 apps that its owner uses on a regular basis. The data also highlights that the apps market might be reaching saturation point -- there is simply too much choice. The combined number of apps available on the US versions of Apple's and Google's apps marketplaces is more than 1.5 million, and of the 750,000 in the Apple App Store alone, some 60 percent (450,000) have never been downloaded once. And, of those titles that consumers do try, one in four apps will be abandoned after its first use.

Gaming has become the single most popular activity over the past 12 months, accounting for 43 percent of usage, followed by social networking (26%). At the other end of the scale, productivity (2%) and health and fitness (1%) appear to be the least popular ways to use a mobile device.

And these patterns and trends are set to continue. By the end of 2013 it is estimated that there will be 1.82 billion active smartphones in use globally and that within the next two years, more than 89 billion apps will have been downloaded.

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