Social Media Apps Boost Smartphone Use Past PCs

Research firm Nielsen published the data earlier this week, noting that 67% of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2014, and they use those phones to access social media and entertainment at increasing rates. Nielsen gathers the data from a proprietary opt-in panel of on-device meters that measure consumer behavior when using smartphones.

Time spent watching television every month is still about triple the amount spent using smartphones, but U.S. consumers spent six more hours every month with their smartphones in December 2013 than they did in December 2012. Italians used their smartphones more than twice as much, 37 hours to 18 hours, in December 2013 compared with a year earlier.

The most time is spent on social media apps like Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), which claim 28% of a U.S. user’s time, 29% of a U.K. user’s time and 24% of a Japanese user’s time. Playing games is another popular use, consuming 9% of a U.S. user’s time, 18% of a U.K. user’s time and 16% of a Japanese user’s time.

Sending text messages takes up 9% of a U.S. user’s time, while Japanese users spend less than 1% of their time on text messaging. Japanese users spend about 7% of their time on instant messenger apps. Think WhatsApp and $19 billion, and whether or not Facebook made a smart move.

Making phone calls takes up 3% of a U.S. smartphone’s usage, and in Japan and Italy that number is even lower. Maybe it is time to call them something besides smartphones. They may be smart, but they are barely phones any longer.