Shifting Consumer Habits? – More Time on Apps than on Web

I came across an article on TechCrunch yesterday that spoke about a Flurry study that kind of shocked me. The headline read, “Time Spent on Apps Outpaces Web.“ I knew that App usage on iPhone and Android devices is exploding at a ridiculous rate but have we really gotten to the point where U.S. Smartphone […]

Image courtesy of Flickr user RobertoHeven

I came across an article on TechCrunch yesterday that spoke about a Flurry study that kind of shocked me. The headline read, “Time Spent on Apps Outpaces Web.“ I knew that App usage on iPhone and Android devices is exploding at a ridiculous rate but have we really gotten to the point where U.S. Smartphone users spend more time on their mobile apps each day than people who access the web via a desktop or mobile device? According to the study, as of June users spent 9% more time using mobile Applications than the Internet (81 minutes per day on mobile apps vs. 74 minutes on the web). This is very impressive, especially when taking into account that the study aggregated mobile and desktop web browsing into their web consumption equation. In speaking with David Marine at Coldwell Banker about my surprise, he brought up the fact that gaming Apps were factored in the study and that might be the cause of the rapid shift, which certainly is a valid point.

So it got me to thinking…. are we seeing the same trends within real estate and the walls of Coldwell Banker? Are consumers significantly shifting their real estate search habits from coldwellbanker.com to our Mobile Applications? The short answer is yes, we are undoubtedly seeing a more than significant shift. I rolled my sleeves up and did some number crunching and compared the percent of all Coldwell Banker brand visits that our mobile apps were responsible for from January-May 2010  and compared it to the same time period in 2011. It appears as if through May of 2011, our Mobile Apps have experienced a 275% increase in share of traffic when compared to 2010.

So it’s clear that mobile usage and penetration will continue to grow astronomically, which is why we are more committed than ever to offer consumers mobile apps that deliver an experience that is both fun and extremely useful/practical. Whether it be with our iPad application that features real estate search, thousands of videos from our On Location channel, Yelp Community ratings and more, to our iPhone and Android powered Apps and Mobile Optimized Websites, we’ve recognized the trend and try to empower consumers to make smarter decisions.

If you want to learn more about what we’ve got going on in the mobile space, visit ipad.coldwellbanker.com.

Gustavo Gonzalez

Senior Manager, Content & Multimedia at Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. In his role he manages content strategy and execution across several platforms. He’s held other roles within the Marketing Department ranging from Previews & Product Development to the day to day management of the coldwellbanker.com redesign. Besides being a marketer, Gustavo is a filmmaker, musician and writer.