While there is no denying the ubiquity of the smartphone, it is equally hard to overlook the fact that a greater number of people are resorting to using their mobile devices to access apps and browse the Web. Travel sites scored a hit during the month of July 2012.
ComScore, Inc., a premier source for measuring the digital world, confirmed this trend with its recently compiled study of U.S. smartphone travel behaviors based on data from its Mobile Metrics (News - Alert) 2.0 service.
The study noted that in the month of July, nearly 40 million people age 18 and older used their mobile devices, running the iOS, Android (News - Alert) or RIM operating systems, to visit a travel destination either using their mobile browser or app on their smartphone. This equates to roughly 37 percent of the smartphone population.
From among 15 travel properties that found favor with the smartphone users, TripAdvisor Media Group had the largest number of followers with 6.7 million visitors, a little ahead of Expedia (News - Alert) Inc., which came a close second.
Although Southwest Airlines, Priceline.com, Travora Media, Delta Airlines did figure among the top 10 airline destinations, they were way behind, with the third ranking airline just managing to cross four million visitors.
The study also noted that the amount of time spent across apps and browsers in the travel category were more or less identical, further confirming the fact that apart from a few exceptions, apps and mobile browsers had almost equal grip on smartphone users.
However, when it came to all mobile content, only 17 percent users used their browser with 83 restoring to apps.
What was also interesting about the study was that men and women engaged differently when it came to accessing sites, and largely more women than men, with some exceptions, tended to access the online travel agent destinations on their smartphones. In some cases, the difference was rather apparent.
Among top airline sites and apps, more men than women seemed to prefer Delta Airlines while the opposite was true for Southwest Airlines. Hotel brands also experienced a ding-dong preference with only Marriott experiencing an even distribution.
Comscore's Mobile Metrix 2.0 utilizes Unified Digital Measurement for smartphone devices, and provides accurate and detailed views into actual U.S. mobile media usage across apps and mobile browsing.
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Edited by Rich Steeves