The

Female
app
economy
The Female app-economy
A revolution is happening: An ‘app’ revolution that is chang-
ing the way we engage with, and think about, software. The
software industry, once the preserve of a nerd elite, has
finally become a truly democratised consumer market in which
women are establishing themselves as fully engaged
participants.
According to a Gartner report, physical downloads of apps
reached 2.5bn last year. Worldwide mobile app-stores’
download revenue exceeded $4.2billion and will grow to
$29.5billion by the end of 2010 1. Yet despite the high number
of downloads and the financial value of the App-Economy,
very little research has been conducted into how gender
determines app usage. The Lady Geek/YouGov survey
explodes a number of myths concerning the British public’s use
of smart-phones and apps. Mobile device manufacturers and
networks in particular should take note, since this report
challenges fundamental assumptions about how gender roles
drive choice and use.
Historically, the makers of software and the machines which
run it have focussed almost all their marketing efforts on men.
As women have come to make up an increasingly important
proportion of the technology buying population (a market
opportunity bigger than India and China combined2), vendors
have recently begun to follow this trend. Unfortunately some
high-profile attempts to explicitly target women have met
with both disaster and ridicule. For example, Dell’s ‘Della’
campaign was accused of adopting patronizing clichés, which
suggested that the company was not in touch with the needs
of women.
This failure was born of a misunderstanding of how real
women in the real world engage with technology.
With the use of quantitative research, along with
Femonography3 and expert interviews, this report will help
companies start to understand how women think, feel, and
engage with their smart-phones and mobile apps.
New behaviours are emerging, and apps are influencing
everything from the way we check the weather or bond with
our friends to how we order our groceries.
1
Dataquest Insight: Application Stores;The Revenue Opportunity Beyond the Hype. Jan 2010
2
Harvard Business Review, Sept 2009
3
A Lady Geek proprietary research technique
Women and Men’s Current Top Favourite Apps

1 maps 1 Facebook
2 facebook 2 maps
3 shazam 3 Bejeweled
4 guardian 4 shazam
5 google 5 ebay
6 gmail 6 google
7 sky news 7 sudoku
8 skype 8 ubertwitter
9 opera mini 9 guardian
10 twitter 10 sky news
11 sky sports 11 twitteriffic
12 doodle jump 12 skype
13 national rail 13 scrabble
14 bloomberg 14 solitaire
15 scrabble 15 echofon
16 ecofon 16 tetris
17 spotify 17 doodle jump
18 bbc iplayer 18 blackberry messager
19 weather 19 weather
20 grindr 20 twitter
 Myth 1:
Sex can be left out of
the apps agenda
“The future of marketing is participation. And the big clue to
getting women to play more with apps is in the name...
application. Women want a very simple question answered:
“how does it apply to my life”.
Stacy Takaki, Global Strategy Director, Publicis Ltd

“It would help if smart-phones came with a guide on how to

get started. There’ s huge potential for blogs, magazines and
newspapers to help women find apps that are useful or fun.
I can’t remember seeing an ad for a single app.”
Rebecca Thomson, Senior reporter, Computer Weekly
survey findings
Amongst the 18-24 age-group, women were nearly twice
as likely to never have downloaded a single app compared
to their male counterparts.
Whilst some apps appeal to both genders (Google Maps,
Guardian), there are clear gender preferences in the Top
20 apps. For women, the most popular apps include ebay,
Ubertwitter, Sudoku and Bejeweled. Men’s favourite apps
include Sky Sports, Maps and Gmail.
Across all age-groups, women were more likely to have
obtained a new smart-phone in the last six months, than
men of the same age. This is particularly the case among
25-39-year-olds.
Nearly 1 in 4 men will find an app by looking on the web
compared to only 1 in 8 women. Although the app-store is
dominant across the board, women are much more likely
than men to find out about a new app from a friend. 25% of
women aged 18-24 heard about their favourite app from a
friend compared to only 14% of men.
qualitative insight
In the Lady Geek research, women stated that they often
struggle to see the attraction of many apps. They ask the
question ‘How can this app enhance my life or help me
become more efficient?’ Whilst apps like the Charmin ‘sit and
squat’ loo evaluator and Jamie Oliver’s app with its 20-minute
meals, add real value to women’s lives, the majority of apps
are seen by women as pointless and redundant.
To explain why it is that women are not downloading as many
apps as men, we could look to Apple’s recent claim that there
are now a staggering 140,000 available apps for iPhone
users. In this confusing and labyrinthine apps market, women
are suffering from app-overload and app-fatigue, and look
to their friends and peers to steer them through this tyranny
of choice.
Opportunity
Engage women by demonstrating how apps
can enhance their life and help them buy back
time. Don’t talk about the number of apps you
have, but the one app that can make their
lives just that little bit easier or more fun.
Focus on the utility and value and make that
message clear.
 Myth 2:
Social networking is the
hobby of young bored males
“Previously, women were expected to have babies and
disappear. Facebook, etc offers the chance to develop
networks and communities of women in similar situations or
with similar interests and women will pursue these
connections. It’s a new era of female power.”
Claire Coady, one of the Lady Geeks.

“Women are not just simply ‘staring’ blindly at sites like

Facebook. Many applications and services now include
elements of social interactivty as standard, sometimes linking
out to Facebook or Twitter, but often entirely independent.
For example, the Scrabble-like casual game, Words With
Friends, enables turn-based gaming with its own integrated
chat window allowing players to exchange taunts
and discussion of the game.”
Ewan Macleod, Editor of Mobile Industry Review.

www.whisperedbetweenwomen.com
 survey findings Social networks serve as a tool which enable women to
reinforce their sense of individuality beyond their
Facebook is the most popular downloaded app. Almost
day-to-day roles as wife, mother, professional woman,
2/3 of the women who participated in this survey and had
and help to amplify their voice.
downloaded at least one app, had downloaded Facebook.

Approaching half of all women between the ages of Opportunity

18-24 said that their favourite app is for social networking.
Companies are using social networks
About 1/3 of men in the same age group said that their
(Facebook, Twitter) as just another broadcast
favourite app is a social networking tool. This pattern is
media. They have not understood that the
consistent across all age bands, with approximately 1/3 more
appeal of social networks to women is
women favouring social networking apps than men.
intimacy and bonding. Now that social
networks have extended their reach to
Contrary to received wisdom, one in five women in the
mobile platforms, these networks represent
55+ age bracket also claimed that their favourite app fell into
a far greater proportion of media exposure
the social networking category4.
than ever before. Companies wishing to remain
relevant to this audience must find ways to
qualitative insight
interact with their followers and participate in
There has been a feminisation of the web, and social women’s circle of trust.
networks, blogs and female communities have driven this
change. This is borne out by numerous studies, and is
reflected in the recent statistic that Facebook’s population is
now 57% female5. Mum’s blogs such as Dooce.com in the US
and in Mumsnet in the UK are becoming increasingly powerful
www.whisperedbetweenwomen.com

and popular communities. 4

Although this demographic represents a small proportion of our survey, qualitative
research for this report supports this finding..
5
Inside Facebook, US, FEB 2009
 Myth 3:
young males are the biggest
drivers of the app-economy
“The market generally appears to assume that everyone with
an iPhone is a twenty-something living in London.”
Ewan Macleod, Editor of Mobile Industry Review.

“We did an enormous amount of testing with women of all ages

prior to releasing our app. I’m so pleased we did this – we’ve
been absolutely delighted with the response on our two
platforms (Nokia & iPhone). I strongly encourage other
application developers to consider women
in their app design and messaging.”
Raam Thrakar, Co-Founder & CEO, Touchnote.com.

YellowcakeMushroom
 survey findings
40-54-year-old women are almost as apps-active as their
18-24 year-olds counterparts.
More women over the age of 40, have obtained a new
smart-phone in the last 6 months compared to their male
counterparts of a similar age.
Of survey participants, women are at least as likely as
men to have paid for at least one smart-phone app.
Opportunity
Older women are an under-exploited
audience. The App-Economy has given
companies an entirely new segment which
is hungry for apps and has a high disposable
income. This segment may never previously
have been considered a ‘target audience’.
These women have been completely
overlooked in the development of apps,
products and marketing strategies.

qualitative insight
Previous studies have highlighted that the fastest growing
segment on Facebook is women over the age of 55. The
number of women over 55 on Facebook is almost double
the number of men in the same age group6. Yet despite this
growth, companies tend to ignore these women and pay
little or no heed to what they want or need. Only 13.5% of
women over 55 in the survey (a small sub-sample) consider
themselves very satisfied with the range of apps on offer.
Our obsession with youth has led companies to believe that
resources should be focussed on younger women and men,
while the reality is that older women are often just as liber-
ated, if not more liberated, by technology as younger women.
Not to mention that older women have dramatically higher
disposable amounts of cash.
YellowcakeMushroom

6
Inside Facebook, US, Feb 2009
 Myth 4:
mobile gaming remains a
male ocupation

“Given the massive market for gaming apps for women, why is this
opportunity being missed? If a woman wants to be transported
away for a few minutes, when she’s on a cramped tube train, to an
imaginative land to explore, why is she not being offered that for
a couple of quid? Once she’s finished The Mystery of the Crystal
Portal, there’s nothing else for her to do but swap
gems and turn over cards.”
Kirsten Kearney, Editor - www.ready-up.net

Peder Hiis
 survey findings who dismissed them as being both trivial and not ‘real
games’. The result of this is that for many women casual
In the top downloads chart, four games appeared in
gaming is like a ‘secret vice’ which carries guilt and unease.
women’s top 15: Bejeweled, Sudoku, Solitaire and Scrabble.
For men, only two games charted.

Amongst 18-24s of both genders in the survey, there is an Opportunity

approximately equal preference for mobile gaming. However,
in the older male age groups, male mobile-gamers become As these women do not consider
rarer (diminishing to 6.3% in the 55+ category), whereas themselves ‘gamers’, traditional routes to
preference amongst older females stands at 18%. market will not resonate. Gaming
companies must give women permission to
Across both genders, only social networking ranks higher game and acknowledge that these women
in overall preference than games, especially amongst 18-24 are an important audience. New game
females. concepts are needed for this radically
different audience.
qualitative insight
Games consoles have traditionally been marketed to men.
Designs of the current generation of games-consoles require
the player to dedicate time at home or to carry an additional
device on-the-go. We have found that women want to play
games, but on their own terms: Women desire games which
can be ‘snacked’ on rather than binged. Casual gaming
delivered to a device which is already in your pocket or
handbag is a better way to deliver the gaming experience
that women want. The women Lady Geek spoke to felt that
their gaming habits were undervalued by companies,
Peder Hiis
 Myth 5:
women are considering google’s
android platform as a credible
alternative to apple

“Blanket marketing on television and on the newspaper

backpages has, over the past few years, helped to seed the
likes of the iPhone and BlackBerry into minds both male and
female. Android and their vendors can’t rely on the tech elite or
the mobile phone shops to do their work for them. When you’re
evaluating a device based on an 18-24 month contract – a
lifetime in the consumer psyche – you’re incredibly careful
about which device, brand and platform you choose.”
Rafe Blandford, Editor of ‘All About Symbian’

kindergraph
survey findings Apple has captured the hearts and minds of women with
intuitive and fun technology. BlackBerry’s appeal comes close
When asked what smart-phone they would prefer if they
(largely due to the popularity of BlackBerry Messenger, and
were to buy a new phone tomorrow, less than 5% of women
the fact that the BlackBerry is still seen as a status symbol
(25-39) picked a Google/Android phone compared to 11.4%
for young women with professional aspirations). Meanwhile,
of men in the same age band. HTC Hero (a popular Android
Android is being left out in the cold.
device) is three times as likely to be owned by a man as by a
woman.
Whilst Android is technically a rival to the iPhone, the lack
of awareness of the platform makes it a very unattractive
Across both genders, Apple is consistently the preferred
and ‘unsafe’ proposition for women compared to well-known
brand, with BlackBerry as the #2 choice for most age-groups.
brands such as Apple and Nokia. Previous studies have
Amongst 18-24s, women are almost twice as likely as men to
shown that women are “Reassurance Addicts”, with 80% of
want a BlackBerry phone.
women seeking re-assurance in their choice of technology
compared to only 20% of men8.
Android has a niche of popularity amongst 18-39 males,
but even so remains a minority choice.
Opportunity
qualitative insight Educate and re-assure women about the
benefits of Android and create a buzz around
Android has a “dude problem”. 73% of its users are men
the Android platform that goes beyond the
compared to the user breakdown of the rest of smart-phones
nerd community. Android vendors should seek
which is skewed only slightly towards men7. Google and its
to co-brand with Google or develop explicit
allies have made no particular effort to market to women.
propositions around Android to help bridge the
Recognition of the Android platform is low. Few women that
reassurance gap.
we spoke to are aware which handsets are Android devices
– and as a consequence, even if they were aware of Android,
7
we might not expect this to strongly affect choice. Ad Mob Mobile’s Metrics, Jan 2010
8
Lady Geek/Times Female Appeal study, Nov 2009
Conclusions
It’s clear that women are using smart-phones and apps in
dramatically different ways to men: what apps women
download to men are different, where they find them, and
how they feel about apps is different to men.
Social networking is the killer app. Of all the social networks,
Facebook dominates the download charts across all
platforms, with one or more Twitter clients trailing in the
distance. Women are the keenest mobile social-networkers.
Our qualitative research shows that this is because women
find the mobile platform liberating.
We were surprised at the popularity of mobile gaming
amongst women, especially amongst older age-groups. It’s
clear that there is a huge opportunity to market games to
this audience; however in order to do so, companies must
re-imagine the concept of games in order to develop products
which have a wide appeal beyond the adolescent male.
The most successful smartphone platforms are iPhone and
BlackBerry. Symbian is a close third. Notable by omission is
Android which has failed to build any significant traction
amongst the female audience. Android provides a perfect
example of how not to market a platform to women: By almost
entirely ignoring this segment and assuming that “if we build
it they will come” - the Android experience seems to have
become irrelevant to more than half of the population. We
note that Android is still a young platform and that Google
have huge marketing resources should they choose to use it,
so there is still time to rectify this situation.
And lastly, there is a widely underserved group of older
women who are becoming the driving force behind the
App-Economy but are largely unnoticed by companies.
The App-Economy builds upon the success of the computer
software industry, but opens what was previously a nerd
priesthood out to all ages and genders of the population.
For all the succsess of the IT industry, it has done so without
attempting to market itself as a truly consumer market. Up until
now.
It’s an exciting time to be in the mobile world.
Methodology
For this report, Lady Geek in
conjunction with YouGov SixthSense
ran a survey on YouGov’s monthly
Oracle survey, which is sent out to all
of YouGov’s 270,000 panel members.
The survey was conducted throughout
the month of February 2010. A total
of 78,835 responses were received.
It should be noted that results were
not weighted, nor are they nationally
representative.
Lady Geek also conducted some
‘Femongraphy’ and expert
influencers which added qualitative
insight into how women think and
feel about technology.

snaufnase
about sixthsense
SixthSense, part of YouGov plc, is a provider of
comprehensive business intelligence. We offer a powerful
new type of consumer-driven market intelligence report and
online information platform, designed to help your business
make better and quicker decisions.
Through our proprietary panel of 270,000 UK consumers and
bespoke research methodology, we collect unique consumer
insight.
Our analysts are highly qualified and, on average, each
draws on over 15 years industry experience to deliver
analysis, comment, opinion and advice on the latest market
trends and conditions across a range of sectors including
Food & Drink, Retail, Health & Beauty, Lifestyle, Finance and
Technology.
YouGov has been acclaimed as the country’s most accurate
pollster and the most quoted research company in the UK
and has operations in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
For more information about our services, please see
www.yougovsixthsense.com
about the lady geeks
Lady Geek helps technology and gaming companies
understand and sell towomen. Our team consists of marketing
and research experts,ethnographers, industrial designers and
gender academics.
Our expertise lies in producing bespoke content, designing
products,researching and inventing new ideas amongst our
specialist panel ofthe most influential women in technology in
the UK.
We also have a regular presence in Management Today
and a column in The Times. Our clients include ASUS, Tom Tom,
YouGov, GenieDB & Samsung. Our founder, Belinda Parmar,
is one of Computer Weekly’s Best Technology Entrepreneurs
2010.
If you would like to find out more, please contact the Lady
Geeks at info@ladygeek.org.uk and visit our site
http://ladygeek.org.uk
%
Approximately how many applications have
50,6
50 you added/downloaded to your phone?
2,3 45,7 by age and gender
49,2
40
14,1
31,1 31,8
30

19
19 20
20 19 19,1
17,6 17,6
14,1 14 15,4 14,9
11
10

none
0
1-2
19
1,7 18-24 18-24 25-39 25-39 40-54 40-54 55+ 55+ 3-5
0
6 or more

10 9,4

12,5
15,1 16,2 12,5 15,2 14,3
16,9
20 18,1
19,1
24 26,6

30
30,7
5,2
36,6 35,7
40
40,9
15,2

50 9,4
14,3
56
which category best sums up what your favourite app does?

% games

Communication
social networking
50
44,5

40 38,1

34,8
30 26,6
26,8
21
20,5
20,1
20 17,7
18,4
17,1
18,1 19,2

13,4
12,1
10
6,3

0
18-24 18-24 25-39 25-39 40-54 40-54 55+ 55+

age

gender
If you could buy a new smartphone tomorrow, which kind would you find most appealing?

% by age/gender 18-24 26-39 40-54 55+

52,4 54,4 56,7 53,8 46,1 45,8 36,6 34,6

20,5 14 12 8,9 15,1 12,7 12,8 15,1

4,7 5,8 6,9 7,2 6,6 8,6 11 13,6

0,3 1 0,1 0,2 0,5 0,2 0,1 0,4

6,9 12,3 4,6 11,4 2,9 7 2,5 4,7

1 1,2 0,8 0,5 1,9 1,2 2,2 1,8

2,6 0,9 2,1 0,8 1,9 1,5 2,4 2,6

1,8 1,9 2,1 2,2 2,9 2,1 3,6 2,6

 Final words for commercial
success in the app-economy

1. Involve women in the initial stages in the

development process- not when it is too late.

2. Messaging and communications of apps needs to bridge

The Reassurance Gap.

3. Remember for women, technology is not something to

conquer but something that will enhance their life.

cover collage kindergraph original photo queenzbaby 89 graphic design by kindergraph