RESTON, Va., April 7, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported that Tapulous's Tap Tap Revenge has the largest installed base among applications downloaded from the Apple App Store, with 34 percent of Apple App users having installed the game by February 2009, according to the comScore Apple App Store Report. The new report, which observes the cumulative installed base of applications downloaded via iTunes, is the first tool enabling digital marketers to understand the audience size, demographic profile and online behaviors of Apple app users.

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"It's impressive that a game like Tapulous's Tap Tap Revenge can attract a higher penetration among Apple app users than apps for larger and more established brands," said Brian Jurutka, vice president, comScore. "Tap Tap's success demonstrates that there is ample opportunity in the app space for any publisher to obtain significant distribution with a product that engages users. Since the number of app users is growing nearly ten percent each month, that opportunity will only continue to grow for both existing and emerging app developers."

Top 25 Apple Apps

A review of the top 25 most heavily penetrated apps illustrates the importance of gaming to devices like the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Twelve out of the 25 most popular mobile apps were games, including classics like Hangman and Pac-man, and more non-conventional titles like Cube Runner and Crazy Penguin Catapult. Among non-gaming applications, Stylem Media's "Backgrounds" applications had the highest installed base, followed closely by the top social networking applications: Facebook and MySpace Mobile.

    Top 25 Apps by Penetration of Apple App Users
    February 2009
    Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
    Source: comScore Apple App Store Report

                       Penetration
                          Of
    Application         Installs Category            Developer

    Tap Tap Revenge        32%    Games             Tapulous, Inc.
    Backgrounds            27%    Entertainment     Stylem Media
    Touch Hockey: FS5      26%    Games             FlipSide5, Inc.
    Facebook               26%    Social Networking Facebook, Inc.
    Pac-Man                24%    Games             Namco
    iBowl                  24%    Games             SGN
    MySpace Mobile         23%    Social Networking MySpace.com
    Google Earth           22%    Travel            Google Inc.
    Labyrinth              22%    Games             Codify AB
    Pandora                21%    Music             Pandora Media, Inc.
    AIM                    19%    Social Networking AOL
    Flashlight             19%    Utilities         John Haney
    Virtual Zippo Lighter  18%    Lifestyle         Moderati Inc. and Zippo
                                                    Manufacturing Co.
    Movies                 18%    News              Flixster
    Hangman                18%    Games             Jamsoft
    Bubblewrap             18%    Entertainment     Orsome Software Ltd.
    Lightsaber Unleashed   17%    Entertainment     Lucasfilm Ltd
    Shazam                 17%    Music             Shazam Entertainment Ltd.
    Mazefinger             16%    Games             ngmoco
    Cube Runner            16%    Games             Andy Qua
    Sol Solitaire          15%    Games             Smallware LLC
    Crazy Penguin Catapult 15%    Games             Digital Chocolate Inc.
    Topple                 15%    Games             ngmoco
    Sudoku                 14%    Games             Mighty Mighty Good Games
    Remote                 13%    Entertainment     Apple

"comScore's Apple App Store data confirms the popularity of Tap Tap Revenge," said Bart Decrem, CEO, Tapulous. "Unlike other Apple app rankings, which list apps by popularity during a given time period, the comScore view shows the cumulative installed base of the applications, thereby revealing the true size of the audience that can be reached. For example, we are able to see that some of the top gaming apps reach even more people than the most popular social networking apps. With such a large base having already installed the free version of the product, converting even a small portion into paid versions using premium content like Coldplay and Tap Tap Dance represents significant revenue upside."

Apple App Users Are Highly Engaged, Upper-Income Media Consumers

comScore also analyzed the demographic and online behavioral profile of Apple app users, to determine their overall attractiveness to advertisers as an audience. The results indicated that app users were a particularly desirable audience because they were higher-than-average income consumers heavily engaged with online media content.

The online site categories with which app users spent the greatest amount of time relative to the average Internet users (as measured by their engagement index*) revealed above average engagement with retail, conversational media (social networking and blogs), entertainment, sports and search sites. So, not only do they engage with a variety of social and multimedia content, but they are also reachable and engaged online consumers.

    Top Site Categories Visited by Apple App Users
    February 2009 vs. January 2009
    Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
    Source: comScore Apple App Store Report

                                             iTunes App Users
    Site Category                            Engagement Index*

    Retail                                          149
    Conversational Media                            138
    Entertainment                                   136
    Sports                                          134
    Search/Navigation                               128

    *Engagement Index = Average minutes among iTunes app users/average minutes among total Internet users x 100; Index of 100 represents average engagement

Other notable findings about Apple app users include:

    --  They are 32 percent more likely than average to belong to households
        earning at least $100,000 per year. This income segment represented 35
        percent of all app users.
    --  More than half (54 percent) of app users are in households making at
        least $75,000 per year.
    --  They were at least three times more likely than the average Internet
        user to visit several popular gaming sites, including
        Ultimate-guitar.com, IGN Entertainment, GameStop, AddictingGames,
        Xbox.com, Blizzard Entertainment, SourceForge and EA.com.

    --  They were also at least three times more likely than average to visit
        several popular social/communication/entertainment sites, including: AOL
        Instant Messenger, Hulu, Twitter.com, Digg.com, iMeem and MTV.com.

About the comScore Apple App Store Report

A subscription to the monthly Apple App Store Report is available. The report can be used to answer the following questions:

    --  Which Apple apps are the most popular and have the largest installed
        base?
    --  Which Apple app categories (e.g. games, entertainment, social
        networking, etc.) are the most popular?
    --  What is the demographic profile of Apple app users?
    --  What is the online behavioral profile of Apple app users?

    --  How do Apple app users engage with online media and/or brands?

For more information on subscribing to the report, please contact Brian Jurutka at (703) 438-2113 or bjurutka@comscore.com.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.

http://www.comscore.com

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