Hot Tech: Consumers Spend 2 Hours Daily on Apps

Apple’s app store is celebrating its five-year anniversary, and it seems consumers can’t get enough. There are more than 700,000 apps in both the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)  app stores alone, and users spend on average close to two hours daily on apps, according to Gartner Inc. Much of the time users are spending with apps is divided between social networking and shopping, according to Linda Barrabee, research director for Connected Intelligence at The NPD Group. The firm tracks software usage on phone Android and IOS phones and tablets. In January, Barrabee says 89% of consumers were using Facebook on the iPhone, and the stats for Android were nearly as high.  In addition, YouTube is always extremely popular among users. “Smartphones are great for watching those quick hits,” Barrabee says. “The screen sizes are getting bigger and better for longer-form viewing.” Shopping is also extremely popular, within the top 10 app categories for users, she says. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the No.1 shopping app, followed closely by eBay, Barrabee says. Music is also a big one for users, with Pandora in the top six apps for IOS, and 12th most popular among Android users. NPD sample group includes 500 IOS users and 1,000 Android users, she says. Another fast-growing app category is for search and directions, she says, naming Google Maps as a popular download. Here are the top 10 apps for Android and IOS phones, according to the NPD Group's Connected Intellegence SmartMeter for January 2013 Top 10 Android Apps: 1. Google Play Store 2. Gmail 3. Google 4. Facebook 5. Google Maps 6. YouTube 7. Google Search by Voice 8. DownloadProvider 9. Google+ 10. Google Talks Top 10 iPhone Apps: 1. AppStore 2. Facebook 3. iTunes 4. YouTube 5. Weather (iPhone native app) 6. Amazon 7. App Trailers 8. Twitter 9. Pandora 10. Instagram