Fiksu: Mobile costs up, app downloads down

According to the report mobile app marketing costs surged 30% higher between October and November (2012).

"We can chalk November's dramatic surge in mobile app marketing costs to increasing - and anticipated - holiday season spending, combined with a drop in organic downloads in the aftermath of the iPhone 5 launch," explained Micah Adler, Fiksu CEO. "We can expect costs and download volumes to climb through December, much like last year, as marketers spend heavily in preparation for the flood of new devices and rush of user activity and app discovery around Christmas."

Fiksu's Cost per Loyal User Index (CpLUI) was also up 30% ($0.32) to reach $1.38 in November; the October CpLUI was $1.06. The CpLUI has fluctuated from a high of $1.54 (July 2012) to the low of $1.06 in October.

Meanwhile, comScore reports that Android continues to lead the mobile subscriber base with a 53% market share; Apple's market share stands at 34.3%. For the month of October more than 121 million US adults owned smartphones (51.9% penetration rate), an increase of 6% since July 2012.

As for how mobile consumers are engaging, more than three-quarters utilize text messaging while 54.5% download apps and 52.7% utilize mobile browsers to surf the mobile space.

Tags: comScore, Fiksu, mobile marketing, mobile trends, mobile usage