17% of smartphone owners use check-in apps
updated 04:30 pm EDT, Thu May 12, 2011
3 in 4 mobile users check-in from a smartphone
comScore, a market research firm that measures trends in the digital world has released a study that shows just how mobile the world has become. Their research reveals that many mobile and smartphone users checked in using mobile apps such Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla. The study, which surveyed users in March, found that 16.7 million, or 7.1 percent of the total US mobile subscriber base used location-based “check-in” services on their phones. 17.6 percent of the estimated 12.7 million smartphone owners now use these services.
Younger individuals accounted for the majority of the usage. Nearly 60 percent were 18-34 year olds. Users with Android devices accounted for 36.6 percent. 33.7 percent of users checked in from an iPhone.
“Although still in their relative infancy," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile location-based mobile, "check-in services are seeing rather impressive adoption among smartphone users.”
