A Neilsen study was just released revealing the extraordinary connection consumers have with their smartphones.  This report is the product of Nielsen’s new Smartphone Analytics program — a valuable new resource that receives data directly from mobile devices providing better accuracy than user surveys.

So what does this new information tell us?  Neilsen reports that Android smartphone users spent an average of 56 minutes-per-day on their apps or the web. That’s more time than most people spend with their families at the dinner table every night!

Neilsen also found Android users spent twice as much time on their apps as the mobile web. This underscores how much smartphone users have embraced the app model.  There are those who suggest the mobile web eliminates the need for apps, but Neilsen suggests consumer comfort level with apps shows no sign of abating.

We also learned through the study that Android users spent 61% of their time on the top fifty apps. Perhaps this is unsurprising given the long attention span required of popular apps like e-readers (Kindle), navigation apps (Trapster and Google maps), and mobile games (Angry Birds).  Some lament that the rest of the 250,000 apps have to fight it out for the remaining 39%.  However, if you extrapolate Neilsen’s findings over last quarter’s global Android shipments, that equates to over 1 billion minutes a day.  It seems like there are enough minutes to go around.

That’s also a lot of eyeballs.  56 minutes of attention nets a lot of advertising dollars on television.  Increasingly, the mobile marketplace is attracting similar ad investment.  With the average paid app costing less than three dollars, advertising helps generate enough income for developers to grow their companies and hire new employees.

But as opportunity abounds in the app marketplace — expected to reach $38 billion in the next four years — we are confronted with an increasingly challenging regulatory environment. Congress and the Administration are poised to implement new laws restricting app use, advertising, and online commerce in ways that could stunt this growth before it ever gets started.

Some of the decision makers in Washington are unaccustomed to hearing from app developers and are pursuing policies that would greatly weaken our incentive to innovate. Legislation intended to protect mobile privacy would actually inhibit our ability to market products and realize the fruits of our labor. An article in Politico Pro summed up the serious challenges app developers face:

App-makers may need to look up from those iPhones, Android and BlackBerry games and other tools they’re developing in order to keep closer watch on Washington, where federal regulators are mulling new ways to protect app users.

Even if Congress does not deliver any new privacy law targeting apps and other online services this year, both lawmakers on Capitol Hill and watchdogs at the FTC are aiming to send a message to small-time developers that federal consumer protection rules apply to them, too.

The FTC has been effectively regulating the app industry, levying severe fines against those with privacy violations. The commission claims it already possesses sufficient enforcement authority to combat problems where they arise without need for new regulations.

The real danger is that Congress intends to legislate against new technology in a nascent industry it has yet to fully comprehend.  Never mind their intent, they see apps as a threat and are unconcerned if new legislation punishes an entire industry of law abiding app makers to address a few bad actors. The app market is growing at breakneck speed, one of the few bright lights in our weakened economy. Now is not the time for Congress to stunt economic growth and job creation with burdensome, unnecessary regulation.