Nielsen: Google & Facebook rule Android use

Google makes four out of the five most used apps on Android smartphones, with Facebook rounding out the mix, according to a report released by Nielsen today.

Not counting the Android Market, which is used by more than 90 percent of those individuals who agreed to let Nielsen measure their smartphone usage in July, Android owners used Google Maps, Gmail, Facebook, Google Search and YouTube the most on their phones (in that order). If this was horse race, it'd be Google Maps crossing that line by a nose (74.6 percent), with Gmail (74.5 percent) and Facebook (73.5 percent) breathing hard right beside it for that coveted spot.

Nielsen has an ongoing "Smartphone Analytics metering effort" that is already collecting data from more than 5,000 people who are at least 18-years-old and use iPhones or Android devices. "To determine each apps 'active reach,' — the percentage of Android owners who used an app within the past 30 days — Nielsen analyzed the data from on-device meters on thousands of Android smartphones." (Once they agree to be part of Nielsen's smartphone panel, the company sends them a download link for installing the metering software.)

While the top five apps (after Android Market) were the same across gender lines, the order of usage was definitely polarized by gender (except for YouTube, which was the lowest of the five for overall, men and women, breaking below 50 percent for usage by women). Women favored Facebook's mobile app above the Google apps, with an active reach of 81 percent (vs. nearly 67 percent for men). Twitter also had a slightly higher active reach among women (16.5 percent) than men (13.4 percent).

Men also seem to be holding up the stereotype of not asking for directions from live people, pumping up their use of Google Maps for mobile to a little over 77 percent to be the most used app after Android Market (vs. almost 72 percent active reach for women).

Outside of those five apps, men are using the would-be Facebook killer Google+ twice as much as women: almost 16 percent active reach vs. 7.2 percent for the latter.

But overall, the apps unify the genders rather than divide them. Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio, Quickoffice Pro, Barcode Scanner, The Weather Channel, Pandora Radio, Adobe Reader, Advanced Task Killer Free, the Amazon AppStore, Words with Friends, Talk - Text to Voice and Kindle all fall within the top 20 for everyone.

A Nielsen spokesman said that in return for smartphone users allowing the company to track their usage, Nielsen is "committed to safeguarding their privacy."

And also this:

Thanks to the on-device meters on the smartphones of panelists who own Android phones, we can report on media metrics like reach, frequency and duration for mobile Internet and mobile apps. This information helps media companies and publishers price and sell their mobile advertising inventory and helps advertisers develop winning mobile marketing strategies. We also track other functions on the phone, including camera, dialer, messaging, email and even charging behavior. That information helps wireless carriers and device manufacturers improve their product offerings, service plans, and marketing campaigns to better reflect how consumers actually use their devices.

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Nielsen: Google & Facebook rule Android use