Smartphones owners who also have tablets spend an average 3x more on apps than those who don’t, according to a new report from Analysys Mason, highlighting the need for app developers, publishers and billing service providers to have “the ability to isolate, understand and then encourage users to spend more on apps.”
“Multi-device ownership is also known to drive mobile data spend. Operators can bundle app vouchers with multi-device tariffs to differentiate from the competition and drive multi-device connectivity onto their network,” Analysys Mason notes in the latest update to its European and U.S. “Connected Consumer Survey 2013” series.
According to the latest survey results, 53% of smartphone respondents had not purchased a mobile app as of October, 2102, when the survey – in which 6,600 consumers in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK and US – were polled.
Analysys Mason found that app buying and level of spending varied widely with device model. Just 30% of iOS owners had never bought an app as compared to 58%-66% of respondents with smartphones using other mobile operating systems.
Mobile app spending correlated negatively with length of time of smartphone ownership: the percentage of respondents who spend more than €2 per month on apps was 60% for those who had owned their smartphones for less than six months compared with 50% for those who had owned their devices for longer. Furthermore, “owners of newer and more advanced devices are more likely to buy apps,” Analysys Mason found.
Tablet owners typically have higher levels of disposable income than those who don’t, and they are more likely to own high-end smartphones, the category of devices for which app spend is greater and more prevalent.
According to Analysys Mason:
- More than 60% of tablet owners who have installed apps on their smartphones have paid for an app compared with 40% of non-tablet owners.
- In addition, the share of smartphone owners who spend more than 5 euros per month on apps is nearly three times higher for those who also own tablets compared with those who do not.
Analysys Mason expects the gap in smartphone app spend between tablet owners and those who don’t own tablets to decrease as tablets become more mainstream.
