New mobile devices seem to sprout up by the day, but one screen has not gone away — the television.
Nielsen's recent Cross-Platform report examined the intersection between mobile devices and the ever-omnipresent television set. Americans spent more than 34 hours/week in front of a TV set in Q2 — hardly a number to scoff at.
There's a lot of interesting data to consider here, so let's break down the key insights:
On a daily basis, 40% of mobile device owners use their devices while watching television. A staggering 85% of owners do this once a month — which shows there is a clear connection between using these screens together.
Smartphone use tends to skew younger, while tablet use tends to skew older. The age discrepancy in the tablet group is notable — people aged 25-34 and 55-64 were most likely to use their tablets multiple times a day while watching TV shows.
With the holiday season quickly coming up on us, mobile commerce is a frequently discussed topic. But is the smartphone the right way to reach the customer? Only 29% of 25-34 year olds shop while watching TV on their smartphones.
The Takeaways
Apps like IntoNow help deliver additional show content to a user, but it's clear from these reports that more information on a specific show may not necessarily be the only thing the user may want when viewing TV.
For native app developers, it could mean modifying page content to best fit the potential age demographic that one would expect to hit. Those designing for the responsive web are in a slightly different place, though. Given an apps' ability to scale across devices, a front-end designer may be able to draw more attention toward specific page elements by re-ordering page contents.
However, mobile strategy is highly reliant upon the audience that a specific company gathers — no company will align perfectly with the tendencies presented in the report.
If this report was any indication, it couldn't be clearer that we now live in a multi-device world, and one screen isn't enough for some people to stay entertained. There are opportunities for mobile designers and developers to create powerful, complementary products and websites that help bridge the gap between content presented on the television and these devices.
If you're interested in digging into all of the insights from the report, you can view the full PDF copy here.