A lot of talk is given to the rapid growth of mobile devices over the past years. A new survey has recently been published, however, that shows just how much time young people are spending on mobile devices and why they are essential marketing tools. The survey was conducted by the Refuel Agency where they asked young people aged 16 to 19 about their ‘screen time’ habits.
When asked the question, “On average how much time do you spend using each of the following” with a list of options including TV, Video Game Consoles, Computers, Cellphone/Smartphone or Tablet. The answers were given in hours per day. The results were as follows:
- TV – 3.5 Hours
- Video Game Consoles – 2.1
- Computer – 3.5
- Cell Phone/Smartphone – 6.3
- Tablet 1.9
The clear winner here is the cell phone/smart phone category which is nearly twice as much as PCs on its own. When you combine it with the tablet users, which are another form of mobile device, it is well over double any other category.
They also asked about which devices were the ‘most important’ to the teens. Not surprisingly, 55% reported that their smartphone was the most important. Even though TV use was significant, it actually ranked the least important device at only 7%. Laptop came in second place with 18%, tablet third with 12% and a ‘music player’ coming in 4th at 8%.
In addition to looking at device type the survey also looked into which apps teens were using on their mobile devices. When asked which app they used most they responded with the following information:
- Youtube – 64%
- Facebook – 51%
- Instagram – 45%
- Snapchat – 42%
- Twitter – 28%
Facebook messenger was the most popular of the messaging apps with Instagram and Snapchat being tied for second when the question was specifically about messaging apps that are used.
One more piece of information that all marketers (especially those promoting apps) should take note of is that 49% of teens in the survey reported that they try four or more new apps every month. They choose the new apps based primarily on the recommendation of a friend or family member. The second and third most popular reasons they try a new app is because of social media recommendations and online video respectively.
