iPad/iPhone app figures bring the duh

Several news app producers have revealed details of their traffic on iPhones and iPads. And if you reckon you can guess the patterns, the chances are you are exactly right.

The patterns, detailed at CNET, come from services such as Zite (effectively a cross between an RSS newsreader and Tivo’s suggestions feature), newsreader Flud, and Read It Later, a service that lets users “clip” web articles to read later.

The Zite figures show a consistent pattern for both iPhone and iPad use, rising steeply from near-nothing around 7am, dipping up and down during the day, then rocketing from 5pm, peaking at 9pm, then dropping away rapidly and hitting bottom in the early hours.

In other words — and this may not shock you — people tend to read articles more when they are awake than asleep, and in turn more when they are at home/on leisure time than at work.

The figures also showed that iPhone use of the app is higher than iPad from around 7am, iPad use takes over between 5pm-6pm, and the two are roughly the same from around 11pm.

The shocking conclusion of this news appears to be that people carry iPhones during the day and take the occasional look at articles, but once they get home they sit down with an iPad for a more leisurely read. Perhaps the most surprising part of this is that Zite’s director of technology claims to be surprised.

While Flud’s figures are much the same, Read It Later’s figures at least show the patterns more clearly. It found that the rate at which people “clip” an article or read it on a computer are fairly even throughout waking hours, with a dip in mid-to-late afternoon (presumably as they realise they need to get some work done after all.)

On the mobile devices, though, iPad reading rockets in mid-evening, while iPhone has several distinct spikes that tie in neatly with waking up, traveling to and from work, and then relaxing after dinner.

What’s next? Perhaps a study into how electric light power usage rises after sunset.

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