Key findings:

• The majority of 25-34 and 18-24 year olds now own smartphones (64% and 53% respectively);
• The majority of smartphone owners (62%) have downloaded apps on their devices and games are the top application category used in the past 30 days;
• The number of smartphone subscribers using the mobile Internet has grown 45 percent since 2010;
• 87 percent of app downloaders (those who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days) have used deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon or Living Social;
• Younger groups text the most. In Q3, teens 13-17 sent and received the most text messages (an average of 3,417 each month).

This report draws from a broad range of Nielsen data sources, including: Nielsen’s in-depth monthly surveys of mobile consumers (more than 300,000 consumers surveyed each year); Device metering data from the iOS and Android smartphones of thousands of consumers who have volunteered to be a part of our research panel; detailed, monthly analysis of the cellphone bills for 65,000 lines in the U.S., again, thanks to volunteer panelists.

For more, download State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report Q3 2011.

When it comes to TV viewing, women of all ages spend more time than their male counterparts. Women ages 2+ watch nearly 16 hours of traditional TV more per month than men. On the flipside, men consistently spend more time streaming video online.

Older Americans (65+) watch more than twice as much traditional TV as teens, and roughly 37 percent more TV than those ages 35-49. In terms of the size of the audience, Americans 50-64 make up the largest segment of the traditional TV audience (25%). Interestingly, adults 35-49 represent the largest segment of the Internet video audience (27%) and Americans 25-34 dominate the mobile video audience (30%).

There are also distinct viewing trends by ethnicity, with African-Americans watching the most video content.

• When it comes to traditional TV, African-Americans tune in nearly 213 hours per month, more than twice as much as Asians and roughly 57 hours more than Whites. African-Americans also watch the most mobile video, though less time-shifted TV than the general population.
• Asians have emerged as the hands-down leader in time spent watching video on the Internet, averaging six-plus hours more per month than Whites and nearly four hours more per month than the next closest ethnic group, Hispanics. Asians also watch far less traditional TV than the general population.
• Hispanics watch less traditional TV but more Internet video than the general population, but not at the level of the Asian population.
• Whites watch by far the most time-shifted TV—nearly 50 percent more than Asians, the next closest ethnic group—when looking at all TV homes. They continue to watch the most when the field narrows to only homes with DVRs. Whites also watch less video on the Internet or mobile phones than other ethnic groups.

For more detail on methodology, viewing demographics, mobile video, timeshifted TV, and Internet video, download Nielsen’s Cross-Platform Report.

Traditional TV
Overall TV viewership increased 22 minutes per month per person over last year, remaining the dominant source of video content for all demographics. In addition, Nielsen data shows that consumers are willing to pay for high-quality TV content, with broadcast-only homes less than a tenth of U.S. TV households.

Mobile Video
Though still accounting for just a handful of hours per month, mobile video viewing continues to see marked gains, increasing 41 percent over last year and more than 100 percent since 2009.

Timeshifted TV
Timeshifted TV continues to grow, both in the penetration of DVR devices in the home and the time spent.

Internet Video
Internet video streaming also saw increases in time spent; this behavior is the highest among a younger and diverse subset of the population.

More details are available to download in the complete Cross-Platform Report.

Emerging Traditional TV/In-home Internet Streaming Trend
Until the fall of 2010, Nielsen data consistently indicated that the heaviest media consumers are so across all platforms. A subset of consumers from television and Internet homes has now emerged that defies that notion, with the lightest traditional television users streaming significantly more Internet video, and the heaviest streamers under-indexing for traditional TV viewership.

This behavior is led by those ages 18-34.  The group of consumers exhibiting this behavior is significant but small. More than a third of the TV/Internet population is not streaming, whereas less than 1% are not watching TV.

For more in-depth information on overall viewing behavior—by ethnicity, gender and age—as well as emerging trends and device and delivery penetration, download Cross-Platform Report.

The growing popularity of mobile video is due, in part, to the rapid adoption of media-friendly mobile devices, including smartphones. Whereas in Q4 2009 only 23 percent of US mobile subscribers had smartphones, by the end of 2010 smartphone penetration had reached 31 percent. Over time, it also has become easier to find, view and share mobile video, either via mobile apps or the mobile web.

Learn more: Download State of the Media – Mobile Usage Trends: Q3 and Q4 2010.

As in past periods, the lowest overall viewing is done by teens, with viewing increasing with each older age break. And women continue to watch more television than men, with 54 percent of all TV viewing consumed by that demographic.

Download State of the Media: TV Usage Trends, Q2 2010.

Revised 10/22/10: This article and the related download have been amended to reflect updates to the percentage of iPad users in the survey downloading apps.

The growing popularity of connected devices – especially Apple’s iconic tablet computer, the iPad – are starting to change how people consume media. And with sales of these devices expected to be a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster holiday shopping season, everyone, be they media companies, publishers, apps developers, advertisers, device manufacturers and wireless carriers are all trying to understand how to leverage this emerging segment.

The Nielsen Company recently surveyed more than 5,000 consumers who already own a tablet computer, eReader, netbook, media/games player, or smartphone to get a better sense of who is using these devices and how they are using them. Download a summary of the findings or contact us for information about acquiring a full copy of Nielsen’s Connected Devices Playbook.

Among the insights:

• Four percent of U.S. households now own tablet computers
• The iPad trumps the iPhone for “print” and video viewing
• A majority of iPad owners have already downloaded and paid for content

“Consumers are driven by the convenience and quality that today’s technology now enables,” said Matt O’Grady, Executive Vice President, Audience Measurement. “New mobile devices and enhanced TV quality allow viewers to engage in more content than ever before.”

More than half of US TV households now have HDTV, up 189% from the first quarter of 2008, and more than one-third now have DVRs, up 51%.  High-speed broadband Internet access, now in 63.5% of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos and nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, enabling consumers to “place shift” and watch video wherever they are.  Despite the common perception that viewers of videos on mobile phones are predominantly teens, more than half (55%) are adults aged 25-49. While mobile online video viewing is still fairly limited, year over year growth is notable at 51.2%.

TV still remains the preferred screen of choice: viewers watched 2 more hours of TV per month in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period a year prior (158:25 vs. 156:24).  They are also continuing to simultaneously use the Internet while watching TV, with the average time spent doing both activities up 9.8% to 3 hours and 41 minutes.

As of Q1 2010 the 292 million people in the US with TVs spend on average 158 hours, 25 minutes each month tuning into television.  Q1 2010 data shows that 138 million people watching video on the Internet spent on average 3 hours, 10 minutes during the month doing so.  As of 1Q10 the 20.3 million people who watch mobile video in the US spend on average 3 hrs, 37 minutes each month watching video on a mobile phone.

• Download Nielsen’s latest Three Screen Report.

The World Cup, the most popular sports event in the world, is upon us again.  While the importance Americans attach to this event is small, the rest of the world literally views it differently, and for the first time mobile devices will play an important part in how people follow the game.

More nations (208) participate in the World Cup’s qualifying tournaments than in the Olympics (205) or the United Nations (194). The World Cup has been a flashpoint in war (as in the 1969 “Soccer War” between Honduras and El Salvador) and wars have been halted to allow combatants to watch mere exhibition games (albeit with soccer great Pele and the Brazilian National Team) like during Nigeria’s civil war also in 1969. Despite revelry in the streets, crime rates are said to drop during the games in many countries because even the crooks are glued to their TV sets.

And now, the Beautiful Game, or joga bonito as the Brazilians say, is coming to mobile.

When asked how they intend to follow the World Cup, fans chose mobile with surprising regularity. Globally, 21% said they would get at least some of their information from the Internet via their mobile devices and 9% said they would get it through applicationa on their phones.

Latin America is one of the most soccer-crazed parts of the world, but interest in following the tournament via mobile is different from country to country. While the interest in the World Cup is almost equally high in Argentina and Brazil, Brazilians are twice as likely (21%) to get World Cup information from their phones as Argentines (10%). But neither country comes close to Venezuela, where 27% of respondents say they’ll be following the games on a mobile device. In North America, 23% of U.S. respondents, but only 11% of Canadians, will check up on the World Cup via their mobile phone.

Throughout the rest of the world, interest in World Cup information via mobile is also strong. In every country that we surveyed in the Middle East and Africa, between 22% and 30% of respondents planned to use mobile as one of the ways to get information about the World Cup. The numbers in Europe were lower with Ireland showing the most mobile interest (18%). In big European soccer nations like Germany and Spain, only 3% of respondents said they’d use their mobile phones to get information about World Cup games.

Where it gets really interesting is with TV usage: live TV broadcast and mobile Internet access were moderately negatively correlated (-0.46), indicating that the less likely you are to watch the TV live broadcast the more likely you are to seek out the information with your mobile phone. At the same time delayed broadcasting/highlights was completely randomly correlated (-0.03) with using Internet on the phone to find out about the World Cup. This indicates that people want to know about the games immediately and not get rid of the television viewing experience.

Among households with televisions, PCs, and mobile devices, TV continues to be the dominant media platform, with nearly 6 times more spent watching TV at home than accessing the internet (156 hours per month for TV, 27 hours for internet). Of those respondents who access the Internet, many were surfing while watching TV; nearly half (44%) engaged in “simultaneous viewing” at some point over the past month. Simultaneous viewing levels were slightly higher during the week than on weekends. The top 5 websites accessed during these simultaneous viewing periods were: Baidu, Kaixin, 163.com, Taobao, and Sina.

“The digital media landscape in China is evolving rapidly. With the country’s emphasis on Next Generation Broadcasting and the integration for TV/Radio Broadcast, Internet, and Telecommunication networks in the next five years, Chinese consumers have increasingly adopted digital cable TV, IPTV, high speed internet, and 3G cellular services,” said Jed Meyer, Managing Director, Media Services for The Nielsen Company, Greater China. “It is critical that media and marketers alike better understand what and how consumers watch, as more and more content and services are available via multiple platforms.”

“Nielsen’s unique capability to provide an understanding of TV, Internet, and Mobile media is helping to drive SMG’s strategy of offering a full range of media services to Shanghai and the national Chinese market,” said Mr. Li Huai Yu, CEO, BesTV, a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group (SMG). “The three screen pilot provides us with a much needed holistic customer insight, and helps us to enhance the services we already provide to customers, while developing plans for IPTV and other new media services.”

A Three Screen Market
Findings from Nielsen’s Three Screen panel show that, during weekends, TV usage was 9% higher, and internet usage was 13% higher as compared to weekdays. Also, prime viewing time for TV is also the prime time for internet usage. Further, when comparing TV with internet, the highest penetration TV channels reached nearly 100% of households, while the highest penetration internet sites reached less than half.

Nielsen’s Three Screen report also found that while 94% of panelists occasionally checked their mobile phones while watching TV, only 11% report using their mobile phone to watch videos at some stage over the past month.

“Our study confirmed that the younger generation of people (ages 15-24) are the heaviest mobile users. This was not a surprise,” said Meyer. “What was a surprise, however, was that while men and women report roughly the same amount of total mobile usage time, women watch more video on their mobile phones than men. We hope that findings like these can help to point marketers in the right direction when leveraging different types of digital media platforms in order to reach their target consumers most efficiently.”

Nielsen’s Three Screen report also showed that the most common way to acquire video files for mobile phones was via PC transfer, followed by video streaming, then direct download via the internet. The study also showed that if respondents watched video on their mobile phones, they were also much more likely to access the internet on their mobile phone to surf websites, transfer files, and download software/wallpapers/ringtones and/or games.

The upcoming soccer World Cup offers a vivid example of how Chinese consumers are incorporating mobile into three screen consumption during a particular program or event. In a recent Nielsen survey, almost three quarters (73%) of Chinese consumers claimed that they would be following the soccer World Cup on TV, and more than half of respondents claimed that they will access video streaming. Sixty percent of respondents claimed they plan on reading online articles relevant to the soccer World Cup, 46% of respondents said that they will watch online video via their mobile phones, and 14% indicated that they will watch video clips via their mobile phones.

“The World Cup is clearly going to demonstrate how China is quickly becoming one of the world’s leading nations in three screen media. Chinese football fans will use all available media to stay on top of what is happening in South Africa in June. Whether it’s the World Cup or other programming, it’s clear that the simultaneous use of media will have a big impact on media consumption. There is a huge demand from media owners, advertising agencies, and advertisers for information that will enable them to better understand consumer behavior across China’s rapidly converging media. With this pilot, we begin to provide a truly integrated view. We can help our clients with the answers to some of their most important questions: What and how do people watch?” said Mr. Meyer.

The iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and smartphones in general dominate the buzz in the mobile market, but only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008. We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to  friends, the internet and the world at large. The share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone. If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with a explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell. This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.

The Smartphone User
Slightly more males than females are getting smartphones (53% versus 47%) which is what we would expect for technical early adopter products. In terms of demographics, Hispanic Americans and Asians are slightly more likely to have a smartphone than what their share of population would indicate, which is a trend we see in the adoption of other mobile data services. While smartphones started out in the business segment, two-third of today’s buyers of smartphones are personal users.

Loyalty
In the last six months, roughly 77% of new smartphone buyers remained loyal to their wireless operator, while 18% switched to a new provider to get their new smartphone with the remaining percentage made up of first-time smartphone buyers. Interestingly enough, the percentage of people who switched carriers and got a new smartphone is not higher than that of the average wireless subscriber.

This indicates that the portfolio of the wireless carriers in general is robust enough to prevent any wide-spread smartphone flight from one carrier to the other, with very few exceptions. The added bonus for wireless carriers is that smartphone owners are significantly more satisfied (81%) with their device than feature phone owners (66%).

Features, features, features
Smartphones show higher application usage than feature phones even at the basic built-in application level. During Nielsen’s Mobile Insights survey we asked the respondents about features they’ve used in the last 30 days. The good news for the smartphone market is that people are actually taking advantage of the device capabilities.

The percentage of people who use their phone for only voice communications drops from 14% among new feature phone owners to 3% of smartphone owners. The use of the built-in camera and video capability jumps by almost 20% for both categories, due to the generally better quality and user friendliness of the features. Smartphones also often have a better speaker which translates into more frequent usage from about half of feature phone owners to about two-thirds of smartphone owners. Not surprisingly the use of Wi-Fi increases 10-fold from 5% for feature phone owners to 50% for smartphone users to satisfy the need for fast downloads.