BOSTON: Ads that appear within apps are more memorable than ads on mobile web pages, according to new research from Compete.

The Kantar-owned research firm's Smartphone Intelligence survey for Q1 2011 indicated that 52% of users recall so-called "in-app" ads. For mobile browser ads, this total drops to 40%, while more traditional text-based SMS ads were recalled by just over one in four users.

Between different types of smartphones, owners of Android-powered devices show the highest recall rates, with 55% saying they remember seeing mobile ads before. BlackBerry owners have the lowest recall on 22%.

Danielle Nohe, a director for Compete, said: "If the behaviours of iPhone and Android users, who have more experience interacting with different forms of mobile advertising, are indicative of where the industry is headed, we're starting to see what forms of advertising could be most effective moving forward."

The Compete research chimes with research discussed by Sponge, a UK mobile marketing agency, at a recent Results International seminar in London.

According to the agency, The Guardian, a British broadsheet newspaper, has found that readers who access its online content via their app view 6.8 times the pages than those who visit through the mobile web.

Compete also measured the popularity of various kinds of apps for its research, finding that game-based products had been downloaded by 55% of smartphone owners, weather apps by 44% and social networking apps by 39%.

Data sourced from Compete/Warc; additional content by Warc staff