The 2020 Smartphone Statistics App Developers Should Know

Whether you’re marketing on social media, trying to get your app seen in the SERPs or driving traffic to a landing page, you need to understand the ‘how, what, and why’ of smartphone use.

by Jodie Manners

Which means you need to keep up to date with the latest mobile data and statistics. So, we’ve searched high and low the find the most important nuggets of information about smartphones. And, because we know you’re busy, we’ve put them all together in the infographic below.

Don’t want to run through the lot? No worries! Here are the key takeaways…

People are using smartphones more often than ever before

The average amount of time a person spends on their smartphone reached just shy of 3 hours a day in 2019. Add this to the fact that half of all smartphone users check their device first thing in the morning and you have a very engaged mobile audience. 

Globally, more people have access to a smartphone

Smartphones are no longer the ‘luxury’ item they once were. They’re now an essential feature of modern life. In the industrialised world, smartphone penetration remains high, with 77% of people in the United States and 82.2% of people in the UK owning a smartphone. 

But less industrialised nations are catching up. By 2021, 3.8 billion people, or half the world’s population, will own a smartphone. In fact, more people own a smartphone in the world today than own a toothbrush. And a lot of that increase is driven by emerging economies like India and Brazil.

The internet is increasingly mobile

Since more people own a smartphone, it should come as no surprise that the internet is increasingly mobile-focused. In fact, 50% of all internet traffic is mobile and, in countries where people have less access to other devices, this figure is higher. For example, in Africa, 60% of internet traffic was mobile in origin in 2019. 

Which means search engines like Google increasingly prioritise mobile-friendly sites. So your app’s landing page or marketing website will only do well if it is tailored to mobile users. And if you fail to meet the new standards, they can be removed from the SERPs.

The mobile app market is as strong as ever

The fact that more people are spending more time on smartphones means the app market continues to go from strength to strength. In 2019, 204 billion apps were downloaded, a rise on previous years. And, while social media still dominates the app market, with 39% of the most-used apps being social media based, there’s still plenty of room for innovation in this space.

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Author bio: “Jodie is a Conversion Copywriter, Content Strategist and Optimisation Specialist working with bold B2B SaaS and tech brands. Before founding This Copy Sticks, she spent a decade selling the toughest value proposition around and raised £2 million for charities before her 25th birthday. After 10 years in fundraising, Jodie decided to put her words to work helping tech-mad trailblazers grow their businesses.”