According to first-reported data from Nielsen Smartphone Analytics, a new service that tracks and analyses data from on-device meters installed on thousands of iOS and Android smartphones, the average Android consumer in the US spends 56 minutes per day actively interacting with the web and apps on their phone. But of that time, two-thirds is spent on mobile apps, while only one-third is spent on the mobile web.

And despite the hundreds of thousands of apps available for Android, a very small proportion of apps make up the vast majority of time spent. In fact, the top 10 Android apps account for 43 per cent of all the time spent by Android consumers in the US on mobile apps, while the top 50 account for 61 per cent of all time spent. The remaining 39 percent of the pie is shared between the other 250,000 or so apps.

“Our understanding of how consumers interact with their smartphones has just reached a new level,” says Nielsen Telecoms European managing director, David Gosen. “Our on-device meter now allows consumers to opt in to have their actual interaction measured, with their handsets giving us, for the first time, an on-tap stream of aggregated user data. Handset manufacturers, operators and advertisers are all set to benefit from a whole new depth of mobile consumer insight.”