The idea that people will shift from using native apps on their smartphones to using HTML5 websites offering the same functionality hasn't played out, the analytics company Flurry said, according to The Guardian.

Instead, U.S. consumers'' use of mobile web sites has dropped by almost a quarter, from an average of 31 minutes daily in March 2013 to 22 minutes a year later.

That has come even as people are spending longer on their phones - up on average to 2h42m per day compared to 2h38m in March 2013 - and that they spend even longer using apps rather than the mobile web.

According to Flurry's data, app use grew from 80% of peoples' phone use - 2h6m daily - to 86%, or 2h19m. Mobile web use dropped from 31m to 22m, as measured for the study by another research company, ComScore.

The findings are also significant because the U.S. has had high-speed 4G connectivity for at least two years from multiple mobile networks - which would indicate that connection speed would not be an obstacle to the use of mobile web apps.

Flurry's data, collected from millions of users' smartphones, shows that gaming is the biggest single category of use, with 32% of peoples' time on average, followed by Facebook (17%). Other social messaging including Twitter comprises 11%, followed by YouTube (4%). News apps take up 3% of peoples' time spent on the device.

Flurry commented: "Both Google and Facebook have very well established franchises on mobile, but the market is still very fragmented. In fact, Google and Facebook combined probably command less than 25% of the total time spent by the average U.S. mobile consumer. In addition the top ten franchises, according to ComScore, account for less than 40% of the time-spent. So despite massive efforts by Google and Facebook, the market still hasn’t consolidated and over the past couple of years we have seen new franchises emerge in almost every sector of mobile."

The growing use of apps, rather than browsers, contrasts strongly with the desktop-based use of the internet, where web use is heavy and users are comparatively easily tracked. "This data from Flurry on shrinking mobile web usage poses some challenges for Google," commented Ben Bajarin of the consultancy Creative Strategies. "[The] Post-PC era is also post-web."

He added: "With mobile web usage from smartphones declining, we also need a better way to measure mobile engagement than using web browsing metrics."

For Google, the indifference of smartphone users to the mobile web in favor of apps presents a problem because in general it cannot follow users' activity inside apps, unlike the situation where someone is logged into a Google account while they use a desktop browser. The search company has begun an initiative offering links to in-app content for Android developers which it will be able to index.

But Flurry found good news for Google: far more mobile advertising money is spent with it than time is spent on its products. It calculates that although people spend about 18% of smartphone time in Google properties such as YouTube or in browsers where it can show ads, it received 49% of mobile ad spending, according to eMarketer, a research company.

By contrast Facebook receives 18% of mobile ad spending - while people spend about 17% of their time on its mobile properties. "Other" apps are losing out, Flurry suggested: "the rest of the apps, including gaming apps, are simply not getting their fair share of advertising spent. [They] command 65% of time spent, but only receive 32% of ad revenue."

Flurry concludes that "one thing is clear - apps have won and the mobile browser is taking a back seat. Now every company in the world including Google is adjusting to that reality."