Android’s market fragmentation is often mentioned as a concern for mobile app developers. The concern is that Android is fragmented across multiple handset makers, device form factors and OS builds, but new data from Localytics suggests that developers shouldn’t be worried. Whether it’s OS version, screen size or screen resolution, the Android devices using apps with Localytics as their analytics solution have remarkably similar specifications.

73% of Android handset usage with the same OS build

Across all apps using Localytics, a full 73% of Android usage came from devices running a variant of Android 2.3. While the build, known as “Gingerbread”, is not the most recent, from a fragmentation perspective it should be good news to developers that such a large majority of users are running the same Android OS version.

Add Android 2.2 “Froyo” to the mix, and the majority becomes even more convincing – 23% of Android user sessions were running some flavor of “Froyo”. Between the two, Android developers can be confident that they only need to actively target two Android OS builds in order to achieve 96% compatibility with the Android ecosystem.

Most popular Android handset size is 4.3 inches

Another concern for Android developers is screen size and resolution. Of all app usage analyzed for this study, 41% of all sessions came from Android devices with 4.3 inch screens, by far the most popular size. 4 inch screens accounted for 22% of sessions, 3.2 inch screens for 11%, and 3.7 inch screens contributed 9%.

Resolutions were even less fragmented, however, with the most widely-seen screen resolution – 800 x 480 pixels – contributing 62% of the study’s sessions. The next most popular screen resolutions were 480 x 320 (14%), 960 x 540 (6%), 480 x 854 (5%) and 320 x 240 (5%).

For both screen size and resolution, Android developers have more to deal with than iOS developers, thanks to Apple’s single handset form factor. However, with five options accounting for more than 90% of all Android app usage, the fragmentation is not particularly daunting.

Android tablets showing similar patterns, Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet leading the way

For developers working on Android tablet applications, the fragmentation numbers are similar to those seen in handsets. Led by Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble’s Nook and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab – the three most widely-used Android tablets as measured by Localytics – nearly three quarters of all Android tablet usage is from devices with the same specs.

Screen resolution and size are actually even less fragmented than handsets – 74% of Android tablet usage takes place on 7 inch devices with 1024 x 600 resolution. 22% are 10.1 inch devices with 1280 x 800 resolutions, so by taking into account two screen size/resolution combinations, developers should be able to easily reach nearly all of the Android tablet market.

OS distribution is similarly stable, with 71% of Android tablets running Android 2.3 “Gingerbread”. Most of the remaining tablets are running some flavor of Android 3 “Honeycomb” – 14% are powered by Android 3.2, 7% by 3.1. The rest run “Froyo”.

Why Android developers should not be as worried about fragmentation

In all, while Android developers do have to think about an element of fragmentation foreign to iOS developers, the problem seems to be much smaller than made out to be. Android devices, particularly tablets, tend to be very similar in OS version, screen size and screen resolution. Although iOS developers only have two form factors to craft their applications for, the similarities of Android’s most-used devices should make it less of a challenge to develop for than often thought.

Methodology

For the purposes of this study, Localytics looked at the number of user sessions seen by apps running Localytics as their analytics provider. All data is usage-based. The time frame is the two-week period ending Jan. 22, 2012.

Today, we’re happy to announce a number of new features including user-based cohort splits, time zone settings for reports, custom dimensions and multiple additions to Advance reports and Query Builder.

For All Users

Set default time zone for reports

Customers can now set the default time zone for all reports in the dashboard. To change your apps’ time zones, simply log into your Localytics dashboard, click on the Administration tab, and hit the Edit button on the applicable app. You will now find that, in addition to the app’s name and category, a drop-down menu for time zone is now available.

Improved session length analyses

Get even better insight into your users’ session lengths – your session length metrics now automatically filter out obviously erroneous session lengths (below zero seconds and above 24 hours). In addition to average session length, we now also report median session length.

For Premium and Enterprise

Monthly cohorts splits added to all charts

User-based cohort splits are now available in the Usage and Event charts, with cohorts determined by the time that users first launched your app. This gives another view of retention by splitting session, location, features and more by the month in which users were acquired. For example, view sessions by country and first month the app was used.

Weekly cohorts are also available with Advanced usage reports. Enterprise customers can add daily cohorts as a dimension in Query Builder.

New dimensions for Advanced Reporting and Query Builder

Premium and Enterprise customers can create and save custom charges by cross-tabbing any two dimensions. Query Builder goes a step further and gives Enterprise customers ad hoc, cross-app queries combining up to four dimensions through a simple web UI, with the results download directly to their computer. Three additional dimensions have been added to both the Advanced reports and Query Builder:

• Language (Locale)
• Daily, weekly and monthly cohort splits
• Jalibroken

For Enterprise

Custom dimensions

Custom dimensions are now available in Localytics dashboard charts. By creating custom dimensions you can segment your analyses with user profile data that specifically meet your needs, including gender, subscriber status, and purchaser vs. non-purchaser. Cross-tab your custom dimensions with other standard dimensions (most popular hour of the day for purchasers vs. non-purchasers, for example) and discover actionable insights into app usage.

For help getting your custom dimensions implemented, please contact Localytics support today.

In-app purchases are the lifeblood of many apps, and although it may seem like getting users to the sale proposition quickly is ideal, a new Localytics study finds that building relationships with app users and fostering long-term usage are more important. Of all users in Localytics’ study who made an in-app purchase, 44% did not do so until they had interacted with the app at least ten times. On average, a user who makes an in-app purchase will do so 12 days after first launching the app.

In research from last year, Localytics found that 26% of apps are used only once after being downloaded. As a result, the app publisher community has made a concerted effort to shift away from incentivized downloads and towards engagement and overall customer lifetime value (CLV).

With this new data, that shift is shown to be even more important. With a high correlation between highly engaged users and in-app purchases, developers and publishers with a goal of maximizing CLV have even more reason to obsess over user retention. The more your users interact with your app, the more likely you are to get a chunk of the $5.6 billion in in-app purchases expected by 2015.

Engagement leads to higher CLV

Even more, the users who wait and interact with an app multiple times before making their first in-app purchase are more valuable in the long run, making 25% more in-app purchases over their lifetime as a customer. First session purchasers will make an average of 2.8 purchases in a given app during their user lifetime, compared with 3.5 purchases for all other purchasers.

While moving users towards a purchase as quickly as possible is often considered the primary objective, this data suggests that turning purchasers into loyal, repeat users should be a top priority. While a first-session purchase is an excellent result, our data found that only 16% of users who make a purchase their first app session will go on to engage with that app 10 or more times, compared with 26% of overall app users. Thus, it is imperative that app developers and marketers pay special attention to their analytics solution’s loyalty features.

Grow customer lifetime value

By building your app’s engagement and your brand’s presence in a user’s mind, you can generate better overall revenue based on a loyal base of repeat users. Given the 12 day average time between downloading an app and making a purchase, driving loyalty across a period of weeks will often generate greater revenue.

At Localytics, we help app developers and marketers build more successful and profitable apps with the highest possible CLV through retention analysis and using funnel analysis to optimize in-app purchases. To enable these analyses, app publishers track each purchase and the steps taken to complete the purchase. For the purposes of this study, Localytics analyzed nearly 30 million users’ in-app purchasing to extract patterns publishers can use to benchmark their own apps’ performance.

If there was still any debate whether the Year of Mobile had yet to arrive, then 2011 was finally the year. Smart phones have completely replaced feature phones; not yet in raw numbers but certainly in mind share. Over 28 billion apps have been downloaded. Apple iOS and Google Android received big updates. And sadly, we lost Steve Jobs.

Apps Expand and Evolve

Apps for all those smart phones continue to be insanely popular with Apple reporting 18 billion downloads for iOS and Google reporting 10 billion downloads for Android. Apps also expanded far beyond their “mobile” heritage. iPads and other tablets may still be considered mobile, but many rarely leave the house. Then there are smart TVs, smart appliances and whatever else we’ll see emerge at consumer electronics shows next year.

The way apps are built and monetized continues to evolve too. In-app purchases and subscriptions are now very popular and successful additions to free, paid and ad-supported models. App publishers are also exploring new development languages and distribution models by adding HTML5 to the already popular Objective-C and Java.

We won’t offer yet another list of predictions for 2012, but we’re more excited than ever about the opportunities for apps and the role Localytics can play.

Thank You and Looking Forward to Next Year

All of us at Localytics want to thank our customers and partners for helping to push our business forward in 2011.

Cheers to an incredible 2011 and an even better 2012!

Localytics released research Tuesday morning summarizing new iOS and Android device activations over the Christmas holiday. Unfortunately due to an error, the report was partially incorrect and we sincerely regret our mistake. While re-compiling the report, others released research similar to our corrected report. Rather than re-issue the same report, we expanded the study to segment new activation rates across the top 20 countries.

Localytics provides mobile analytics to top app publishers across over 200 million devices. A key metric tracked by publishers is how many new devices, or customers, use their applications. By calculating the number of new devices across its entire publisher base, Localytics can estimate the growth of iPhones, iPads, Android phones and other devices.

Localytics used the top 20 countries for mobile devices between December 1 and 20 to establish a baseline. The average daily activation rate for this period was compared to the average for December 25 and 26, to allow for devices given on Christmas to be activated the next day. The following chart summarizes the results.

Among these top 20 countries for mobile devices, Localytics saw a huge increase in both Apple iOS and Android activations over the Christmas holiday, with significant regional variation. The UK, US and Canada registered the highest growth rates, followed by other European and Latin American countries. Lower rates were seen in many Asian countries were Christmas is not as widely celebrated.

Voxy, an innovative language learning company that uses mobile technology and gaming mechanics to turn media and real-life content into language lessons, recently found itself the focus of major press. Its iOS app for Portuguese speakers learning English was featured in Brazil’s most widely circulated magazine, Veja and the coverage began generating thousands of new organic downloads per day. This increase in volumes led to Voxy becoming the #2 ranked and #1 grossing app in all of Brazil.

But like any good app developer, the Voxy team knew that downloads don’t tell the whole story – they need to know how users engaged with their app, and they need to continually improve engagement and retention. So Voxy turned to Localytics, using its app analytics platform to inform and test their marketing and product strategies.

This case study will detail how Voxy used Localytics features like daypart analysis, location analysis and screen flows to optimize their user experience for maximum user retention. Download the case study and learn how to maximize Localytics app analytics in your own apps.

We’re continually adding new functionality to our mobile app analytics service, and some of the latest additions include more funnels for Premium and Enterprise customers, setting default timezones for your apps, analyzing device language settings and improved Enterprise account administration.

More Funnels

Our funnel analysis helps app owners test in-app purchases, calls-to-action, subscriptions and registrations easily and effectively by organizing screens and events in to conversion funnels.  If you’re a Premium or Enterprise customer, this functionality is already implemented into your Localytics dashboard.  And now everyone gets more funnels; Premium customers can create up to five per app and Enterprise customers can create an unlimited number of funnels.

If you’re a Community subscriber and would like a free trial upgrade of Premium, contact us today.

Timezone Support

Customers can now set a default timezone whenever they create a new app, and all reports will be adjusted to the selected timezone. Soon, customers with existing apps will be able to also set a default timezone for all new data.

Language Analysis in Advanced Usage Charts

What language iPhone, iPad or Android devices are configured to use can be combined with location analysis for very actionable insights. Localytics Premium and Enterprise subscribers can now use advanced usage reports to see other metrics split by device language. For example, discover how much of the Hispanic market in the US has your app has captured, or evaluate whether your app should be released in another language.

Enterprise Management Screen

Managing your Localytics Enterprise apps has never been easier, thanks to our new Enterprise Management screen. Improved features include:

• Comprehensive view of all users in your enterprise
• Full control over permissions on a per-user basis, including persistent permission settings extending over multiple apps
• Ability to invite new users from within Enterprise administration
• Reset user passwords for other users in your enterprise

Please follow the Localytics blog for more updates. If you have a request for a new feature, we want to know and you’ll help us prioritize future releases.

Retailers who want their piece of a $4.9 billion mobile shopping market (ABI Research, 2010) are presented with similar challenges faced by ecommerce firms in the early 2000’s—mobile apps have a ways to go before they’re as widely understood and optimized as ecommerce sites. However, with proper m-commerce analytics and an understanding of the fundamental differences between m- and e-commerce, app makers and retailers can create an environment that turns mobile app users into buyers.

This best practices paper will introduce suggestions and tips that can turn your m-commerce app users into buyers. As the app experience is completely different from a web-based ecommerce experience, approaching m-commerce from a fresh, app-specific perspective will help you avoid making mistakes brought on by web-driven misconceptions. All best practices can be achieved with Localytics as your solution for mobile app analytics.

Get the Mobile Ecommerce Best Practices for mobile apps white paper instantly and improve your mobile ecommerce app today.

AT&T may no longer have iPhone exclusivity, but their 2007 deal with Apple continues to pay dividends. Based on apps running Localytics app analytics, 56% of Apple’s newly-launched iPhone 4S handsets are running on AT&T. Verizon, which has carried the iPhone since earlier this year, is in second place with 32% of the new handsets, while iPhone newcomer Sprint has picked up 12%.

Looking at iPhone 4 distribution as a comparison, Sprint seems to have eroded more of Verizon’s market share than AT&T’s – of the previous-generation handset, 60% are on AT&T versus 40% on Verizon.

A likely driver for these differences is the fact that AT&T can mine its existing base of iPhone users. Because all Verizon iPhone users are in the first year of their wireless contract, the cost of upgrading will be high. However, many longer-term AT&T users, especially those holding iPhone 3GS and earlier devices, are off-contract or nearing the end of their contract. AT&T has been aggressively leveraging the iPhone 4S to sign these customers to new two-year contracts, and the data in this study suggests that tactic may be working.

The latest and greatest Apple mobile operating system, iOS 5, has been available to the public for less than a week, and yet it’s already been downloaded enough to power 33% of all eligible iOS devices. If you remove the newly-launched iPhone 4S (which ships with iOS 5), that number drops a tiny bit, but still remains an impressive 31%.

Looking at devices, we see that the iPad 2 and iPhone 4are leading the charge, with 36% and 35% iOS 5, respectively. Original iPads clock in with 33% iOS 5 proliferation, followed by iPhone 3GS (27%), iPod Touch 3rd Generation (23%), and iPod Touch 4th Generation (17%).

In order to determine this, Localytics analyzed all iOS device usage from iOS 5’s October 12th release date through October 17th.

Developers who haven’t updated their apps for iOS 5 should be submitting their new builds soon. With changes like Apple’s new iOS data storage rules, iCloud and Twitter implementation, and more, the speed at which users are updating should be reflected in the speed at which app developers are pushing their new versions. We’ve noted in the past how quickly iOS users adopt a new version of the operating system, but also that a chunk of users will hold on to the previous version long enough to necessitate solid backwards compatibility.

It’s also important to note that Localytics mobile app analytics is fully compatible with iOS 5, as well as being fully backwards-compatible.