Comments: US market; Shift – more extension – in user age!
Nielsen: 46 million people used fitness apps in January
Almost
one-third of US smartphone owners, which is about 46 million unique
people, used apps from the fitness and health category in January 2014, according to a report from Nielsen’s Mobile NetView 3.0 software,
which is on-device software installed onto iOS and Android smartphones
with permission from survey participants. Approximately 5,000 panelists
aged 18 and over participated in this report.
The 46 million users accessed the apps, on average, 16 times per month and used for close to an hour.
The number of smartphone users that accessed fitness apps in January
2014 jumped 18 percent year over year. Nielsen said popular apps that
connect to wearable devices include Fitbit’s app, which has 3.3 million
users, and Nike+Running, which has 0.8 million users. Nielsen also
included Samsung’s S Health app, which has 3 million users, in this
category although when the survey was conducted in January, before Gear Fit launched, there were no wearable devices that connected with the S Health app in the US.
The most popular standalone wellness apps used in January 2014, which
Nielsen said varied based on the consumer’s wellness goals, were
Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal, which had 8.7
million users, Nexercise, which had 3 million users and Runkeeper, which
had 2.1 million users that month, according to the research firm.
While Nielsen pointed out in its last survey that half of wearable
owners were in the 18 to 34 age range, the majority of consumers using
MyFitnessPal are over the age of 35.
Additionally, more women than men are using wellness apps. Forty four
percent of people aged 30 to 39 use health apps and 60 percent of that
group consists of women. The last survey also showed that men and women
were equally likely to own wearable devices, but this report found women
used Fitbit’s app 29 times per month, while men used the app 16 times
per month. As this survey noted that more women use apps than men and
more men use dedicated devices, that might explain the larger percent of
women using Fitbit’s app. The month this data was recorded, January
2014, Fitbit released a passive tracking feature on its app so that the app could be used independently of the device.
Last week, another survey, this one of 471 people, from Nielsen
found that only 15 percent of consumers use a nutrition-tracking
website or mobile app to stay healthy. Additionally, 13 percent of
consumers use a fitness game on a mobile devices or game console to stay
in shape. Social interaction is a big motivator for consumers who want
to get healthy — 49 percent of respondents said their family and friends
were the most helpful for staying motivated. This could explain why the
social aspect of health programs such as Weight Watchers are more popular than other features.
