Nielsen just released some stats on Android app usage over a single month, and you might be surprised to hear that though Google apps dominate the top 10, one outside app has manage to wedge itself into the number two spot. After the Android Market (which is an understandable first destination for smartphone owners), the app most likely to be used over the course of 30 days was Facebook. The trend was consistent across three age brackets, ranging from 18 to 44, with Gmail, Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube following up close behind. As you can see from the chart above, the gap between Facebook and the others isn’t huge, but the fact that it can compete with such core applications is a testament to the social network’s future in mobile.
HTC had partnered up with Facebook to create the Status not long ago, and though it was an entry-level device that hadn’t garnered much interest among those interested in upper-tier devices, studies like this show that the concept wasn’t flawed in the slightest, and I would be surprised if we didn’t see another Facebook-branded Android device again sometime in the near future. Of course, Google and Facebook don’t particularly get along, and now with Google Plus in the picture, the two are in direct competition.
In the long run, it would be interesting to see if Facebook could recreate this level of app loyalty in other platforms, like the new BlackBerry 10 OS, or Windows Phone. Android owners, does this graph reflect your monthly app usage? Is Facebook that high up on your list?
[via]