U.S. Claims 47% of iOS and Android App Sessions in October; China Quickly Rising in App Prominence

The U.S. alone claimed nearly half of the worldwide distribution of iOS and Android app sessions, according to Flurry. But it should be noted that China is a rising star in the world of mobile apps.

According to Flurry, the U.S. claimed 47 percent of total iOS and Android app sessions in October, down from 55 percent in January. Meanwhile, the rest of the top 10 (Nos. 2-10) grabbed 31 percent of the market in October, up from 28 percent in January. The rest of the world finished October with 22 percent of the market, up from 17 percent in January.

The bottom line is the rest of the world is growing in prominence in these app sessions at the U.S.’s expense. But there’s one non-U.S. country that stands out more than the rest: China.

Flurry cites numbers from China’s Ministry of Industry indicating that the Asian nation boasts more than 950 million cellphone users – more than any other country in the world.

According to Flurry, “The Mobile Dragon” led all countries in terms of app-session growth from January through October with an 870 percent surge. “While the top 100 countries are averaging session growth of over 200%, China is delivering more than four times this growth rate, spurred by a massive population voraciously adopting applications,” according to Flurry.

China started 2011 with 1.8 percent of all app sessions tracked by Flurry, good for No. 10 in the world. By April, China climbed to No. 5 with 2.7 percent of all sessions. By July, it overtook the U.K. to take the No. 2 spot with 5.4 percent of all sessions. By the end of October, China claimed 7.3 percent of all app sessions.

“If both China and the U.S. were to continue along their respective trajectories, China could overtake the U.S. by the end of 2013, with both countries converging around 23% app session-share,” according to Flurry.

Flurry also shared some data from AppCircle, its mobile app traffic acquisition network, to examine the advertising dollars companies are willing to spend on acquisition per market. This measures from which country consumers are downloading new apps advertised to them.

According to this data, the downloads of new apps in the U.S. was 57 percent in October, followed by China with 12 percent. China began the year with just 1.2 percent.

A separate report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project revealed that 38 percent of adult cellphone owners downloaded an app to their phone in August, up from 22 percent in September 2009.

When those whose phones came equipped with apps and those who downloaded apps of their own are taken into account, 50 percent of all U.S. adult cellphone owners now have apps on their phones.

Sources:

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/77067/China-The-New-Mobile-App-Dragon

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Apps-update/Overview/Findings.aspx