As part of its annual Nielsen Mobile Netview 3.0 study, the market research company has analyzed what smartphone applications and operating systems were popular in the U.S. in 2014.
According to the research, the smartphone penetration rate in the U.S. grew from 69% from January 2014 to 76% by October, with the majority of mobile subscribers using Android (52%), iOS (43%), Windows phone (3%) and Blackberry (2%).
The most popular apps in the U.S. in 2014 were the social ones: a Facebook app (118 unique monthly users, 15% year-on-year rise since 2013), a Google Search (90,7 million monthly users), and a YouTube app (88,3 million unique monthly users).
Top 10 popular smartphone apps are listed below.
| Rank | App | Avg Unique Users | YoY % Change |
| 1 | 118,023,000 | 15 | |
| 2 | Google Search | 90,745,000 | 14 |
| 3 | YouTube | 88,342,000 | 26 |
| 4 | Google Play | 84,342,000 | 11 |
| 5 | Google Maps | 79,034,000 | 26 |
| 6 | Gmail | 72,405,000 | 8 |
| 7 | Facebook Messenger | 53,713,000 | 242 |
| 8 | Google+ | 48,385,000 | 78 |
| 9 | 43,944,000 | 34 | |
| 10 | Music (iTunes Radio/iCloud) | 43,944,000 | 69 |