New studies looking at how users engage with digital media suggests that on average individuals spend 6 times as much time with the same content as a web user.

The successes speak for themselves; Flipboard, a social magazine app for iOS has gained 5 million users. Combining social media feeds and feeds from partner sites into a magazine which users ‘flip’ through has proved extremely popular and user friendly. Zite, a similar product, learns what you like to read, as well as how long you spend reading each topic, to target content delivery. Starting as an iPad exclusive, building on uptake of the product Zite has expanded outwards to the iPhone in an update for iOS5. Pulse, a cross-platform iOS/Android app, has partnered with ESPN to deliver greater sports content alongside its sleek news merging interface. Digital subscriptions have been rising exponentially throughout 2011, with Apple ‘Newsstand’ seeing a 268% rise in subscriptions, along with a 142% rise in single sales.

Similar information has been revealed by Facebook’s director of platform partnerships Ethan Beard, stating that 350million of the network’s 800million users access their profiles from a smartphone. Beard notes that mobile users typically interact with their accounts more often than computer users, identifying a continuing shift in the internet towards a people-centric experience, with every page becoming personalised and tailored to the user.