The app channel is now worth £4.04bn a year to UK brands, with spending up 24 per cent in the past 12 months, according to figures release today by app development firm Conjure.

The average British consumer is spending around £89 a year through apps made available by consumer brands, with high levels of mobile ownership combining to make Britain a hugely valuable market for brands providing digital goods and services using apps.

The commonly-accepted knowledge that Apple users spend more than Android users was confirmed by the report, with those using exclusively Apple devices typically spending around 29.7 per cent, or £26.56, more than those solely using Android tech.

While the average number of brand apps downloaded has barely increased, only growing from 5.5 to 5.9 over the course of the year, one in four Brits are now spending more time than ever before within apps released by brands.

Among those Brits spending less time in brand apps, repetitive or irrelevant notifications were the key reason behind app abandonment, with 27 per cent of respondents citing it as a reason they were less engaged than previously.

“The process of buying a good or service through an app has become normalised,” said Sam Clark, founder of Conjure. “When it comes to putting their credit details into an app most Brits no longer have the feat factor, and most brands realise they need to have an app window on the world.

“That said, brands cant afford to get complacent – theyve got to have a content strategy mapped out in advance, be ready to update their apps with innovative new features at least once every six months, and promote their apps as forcefully as possible through their other marketing channels. Most importantly, brands have got to listen to their customers when it comes to things like notifications – if they fail to do that they will almost certainly have their apps uninstalled before theyve had a chance to shine.”