Mobile app use outpacing Web browsing, report says

People are spending more time each day using mobile apps than browsing the Web, according to a new report from research firm Flurry.

Looking at data compiled over the past year, Flurry discovered that the average user spends about 81 minutes a day using mobile apps, compared with 74 minutes spent surfing the Web both on PCs and mobile devices.

In December and June 2010, Flurry found Web browsing still took up more minutes per day than did mobile app use.

The amount of time spent using mobile apps has jumped 91 percent over a year ago, which Flurry attributed to more sessions per person per day rather than an increase in the average amount of time spent per session. In contrast, the amount of time spent on the Internet has grown only 16 percent over the past year.

Which types of apps are enticing people the most?

Games proved most popular, with users spending almost half their time playing on their mobile devices. Social networking came in second, accounting for a third of the average person's time spent using mobile apps. People are using these two types of apps more frequently and for longer session times compared with other types of mobile apps, Flurry said.

Looking at the stats on Internet use, Facebook now accounts for 14 minutes of the entire 74 minutes that the average user spends each day on the Net.

Flurry also pointed to reports about Facebook's Project Spartan as an attempt by the social network to compete with Apple by trying to run apps within its own service on top of mobile Safari.

To compile its report, Flurry looked at its own data for information on mobile app use and data from ComScore and Alexa for the details on Internet consumption. For mobile apps, Flurry tracked sessions from Apple's iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and J2ME (Java). For Internet use, the firm looked at the open Web, the mobile Web, and Facebook.