Millennials Favor Android Over iOS

Millennials are the generation born beginning in 1980, are an extremely unique demographic segment with digital media consumption habits that vary greatly from older generations. More than half of Millennials today favor the Android Operating System over iOS. They are connected more through technologies. Especially mobile and social. It seems very natural to them as they have adopted email, social, chat, text conversation versus actual traditional ways of communicating. And it is still just as productive or effective.

According to a recent ComScore report, while those age 35 and older still comprise the majority of media audiences in the U.S., Millennials account for a disproportionate share of total screen time and provide a useful glimpse at what the future of media consumption will look like.

Below are the top five highlights from the report:

1. Millennials Spend a Full Day of Every Week Online. During the month the study was conducted Millennials averaged 96 hours online, with 18% of the segment using only mobile devices for Internet access. Millennials ­represented the demographic with the greatest affinity for mobile Internet, more than triple the 5% of 35-54 year olds that rely solely on a mobile web browser.

2. Millennials are More Likely to Own a Smartphone. Four out of every five Millennials owns a smartphone — adding validity to the rash of retailer apps, iBeacons, and WiFi services retailers have been introducing in the past few years. Fifty percent of Millennials surveyed owned an Android phone, with 44 % using an iPhone (the highest percentage among all those surveyed).

3. Millennials Use a Wide Variety of Social Media. Facebook was the most widely accepted social media platform among all of the demographics surveyed, but Millennials had the most fragmented social media use. Ninety-one percent of Millennials used Facebook, 46% used Instagram, 39% used Twitter, and 30% were on Tumblr. The group also engaged relative newcomer Snapchat, with 17% of those surveyed reported they were on the site.

4. Millennials are Harder to Reach with Television Advertising. The demographic strongly prefers to watch video on demand and on the Internet, lessening the effect of traditional television advertising. Ninety percent of Millennials skip advertising when watching on-demand video. Interestingly, Millennials watched an incredible 356 online videos on average during November 2013, almost 100 videos more than the 35-54 demographic.

5. Millennials View More Digital Ads. Reaching Millennials via digital ads is much more successful than traditional television advertising methods. In terms of desktop-based display advertising, the average reach of Millennials among the Top 25 U.S web properties is 27.9%, higher than the other demographics studied. In addition, the average Millennial tallied 2,311 digital ad impressions for the month — over 500 more than the average Internet user in the 55-plus category.

*ComScore

Tommy Toy / Google

Millennials are further embracing mobile banking as well. Mobile applications have made it simple for customer experience. Today there virtual options,  geo-location services, barcodes that link to online and hyper-local to harness touch-screen functionality in downloading applications.  All of these applications are unique to mobile application platforms which offer various opportunities.