Nielsen: iPhone users download the most mobile apps by far

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
In its "State of Mobile Apps," Nielsen Wire notes that apps are dramatically drawing users to smartphones, and that Apple's lead in apps is vast.



The report, which surveyed more than 4,200 people, found that 21% of US wireless subscribers had a smartphone by the end of 2009, up from just 14% a year ago.



Of all phone users, 14% had downloaded a mobile app within the last month. However, smartphone users were consuming far more apps, reporting on average 22 apps on their devices compared to just 10 on feature phones.



Users with iPhone reported an average of 37 apps, as many as the average number of apps on BlackBerry (10), Palm (14), and Windows Mobile (13) users' phones combined and significantly more than the average Android user (22).



Games played a large part of apps users were downloading, with 65% of users reporting having used them in the last month. More than half of the users surveyed also identified social networking, news and weather, and maps or navigation apps as apps they recently used.







Facebook was the clear favorite on all smartphone platforms for social media, but was also the top app on nearly every platform in terms of reported use. Google Maps and the Weather Channel were also very popular across platforms.



Individual platforms also had a unique favorite app: iPhone users frequently used iPod and iTunes, while BlackBerry users were unique in accessing ESPN and Android users were using Google Search more, all of which reflect the user demographics and apps available for those platforms.



Nielson predicts smartphones to overtake the market for simpler feature phones next year, indicating the popularity of mobile apps will only continue to grow.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25
    jetzjetz Posts: 1,293member
    In other words, the more apps that are available (especially for free), the more people download. This is news?
  • Reply 2 of 25
    ghostface147ghostface147 Posts: 1,629member
    In other news, RIM announces a lot of their customers are business users.
  • Reply 3 of 25
    joe hsjoe hs Posts: 488member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post


    In other news, RIM announces a lot of their customers are business users.



    iPhone users having most apps isn't really that surprising is it.



    and wow- my 37 apps are above average, and I used to have 180 lol
  • Reply 4 of 25
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jetz View Post


    In other words, the more apps that are available (especially for free), the more people download. This is news?



    That seems like a false extrapolation. And yes, this is news.



    People don't significantly change their downloading habits based upon whether 100,000 apps or 500,000 apps are available. For example, for much of the Macs history, Mac users installed and used many more programs than their Windows counterparts. This was despite there being more apps available for windows.



    People download and use apps if those apps are useful, usable and/or entertaining. This is more a result of platform usability than of the total number of apps available.
  • Reply 5 of 25
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    This is not news -- it is the same as Mac users using more applications total and more apps at a time.
  • Reply 6 of 25
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post


    In other news, RIM announces a lot of their customers are business users.



    Love it.

  • Reply 7 of 25
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jetz View Post


    ...the more apps that are available (especially for free), the more people download...



    Where did you get this little 'factoid'? \
  • Reply 8 of 25
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot View Post


    This is not news -- it is the same as Mac users using more applications total and more apps at a time.



    So you'd rather just assume that the Mac OS and the iPhone OS are exactly the same in terms of app usage? Sorry, but that's idiotic. There's no other word for it.



    Perhaps you meant to say that this news "isn't surprising". But this is most definitely "news". Or did you already know all these statistics off the top of your head? Average apps per device for each platform, etc. It must be nice to be omniscient.
  • Reply 9 of 25
    This doesn't include ipod touch or ipad which makes the iphone OS platform even more compelling to developers.
  • Reply 10 of 25
    Translation: "Apple customers nearly twice as likely to find the out-of-the-box experience with their phone not fully satisfying their needs."



    I wonder if there's an app that lets AT&T free up enough bandwidth so you can make a phone call....
  • Reply 11 of 25
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    By far my biggest issue with apps on the Android phones is there is no easyway to research apps like on itunes. I can sit at my computer and search itunes and find a whole selection of apps I might be interested in and see what people like and do not like about it verse on a android phone you have to use the market place on the phone and try and read what people have to say can not necessarily see screen shots and most of the reviews talk about how the app does not work on this phone or that phone. Also, if for some reason you have to reset the phone or get it replaced you loose all your apps not can not back them up to your computer at least not easily.



    This is probably the biggest reason iphone users down load far more app then other smart phones.
  • Reply 12 of 25
    iPhone users use iPod/iTunes more, Blackberry ESPN (business users you say?) and Andoid Google search? Sounds like Andoid users are clueless or don't know or not sure what they want if what they do is just searching. Or, maybe they're feeling obliged to fill up those search statistics their master wanted them to do?
  • Reply 13 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post


    By far my biggest issue with apps on the Android phones is there is no easyway to research apps like on itunes



    Which model of Android phone are you using?
  • Reply 14 of 25
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lawrencephaedrus View Post


    This doesn't include ipod touch or ipad which makes the iphone OS platform even more compelling to developers.



    Absolutely. For every three iPhones that Apple sells, they're selling two iPod touches.



    Also, iPod touch users are a significantly younger demographic than iPhone users. iPod touch users also download considerably more apps than iPhone users.



    It's not just about the availability of lots of free apps. There are multiple factors at play here.
  • Reply 15 of 25
    babaloobabaloo Posts: 14member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Absolutely. For every three iPhones that Apple sells, they're selling two iPod touches.



    Also, iPod touch users are a significantly younger demographic than iPhone users. iPod touch users also download considerably more apps than iPhone users.



    It's not just about the availability of lots of free apps. There are multiple factors at play here.



    I don't see how iPod Touchs would account for higher Apps per iPhones. Truth is to attract good developers to an App Market for a platform, you don't necessarily need offer a better market than your rivals, but just be a significant market. This is especially true giving the amount of cross platform App creating tools coming out these days. Its easy to port an App to another platform and gain more audience.



    To be honest this isn't really "news". If you think about it, there isn't really any other way to get rich media on the iPhone other than the App Store. Its Apple's business model. This compared to flash video playback available on other phones, and in the case of Android and Windows mobile, the availability of Apps out side the market place. Plus Android often comes standard with free navigation, music service, and other apps that the user wouldn't have to download. You don't have to argue that the iPhone requires a certain amount of core apps to be downloaded when you first buy it.



    I wouldn't be surprised if App Stores became less used in the coming years. Rich content through HTML 5/Flash/other on mobile devices, plus upcoming hardware advances like the duel-core smart[hone chip are going to make Web-based apps very popular in the future.
  • Reply 16 of 25
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dfiler View Post


    That seems like a false extrapolation. And yes, this is news.



    People don't significantly change their downloading habits based upon whether 100,000 apps or 500,000 apps are available. For example, for much of the Macs history, Mac users installed and used many more programs than their Windows counterparts. This was despite there being more apps available for windows.



    People download and use apps if those apps are useful, usable and/or entertaining. This is more a result of platform usability than of the total number of apps available.



    Excellent point. It is all down the the ease of use IMHO and the proof is in the market cap as they say
  • Reply 17 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Babaloo View Post


    Truth is to attract good developers to an App Market for a platform, you don't necessarily need offer a better market than your rivals, but just be a significant market. This is especially true giving the amount of cross platform App creating tools coming out these days. Its easy to port an App to another platform and gain more audience.



    I don't know how many apps you have in the app store, but I'll wager none of them were written for Android first.



    Have you been away from the news for the last two months? Google "Section 3.3.1".



    Summary: Steve don't want no cross-platform apps and is willing to pull some unprecedented moves to make that happen, destroying millions in app and tool development and souring thousands of developer relationships along the way.



    Apple sat on the new SDK until two business days before Adobe launched their new iPhone-ready Flash dev kit, and the new SDK also put Appcellerator and a dozen other vendors into a lurch. Remember that this didn't happen in SDK 1.0 or 2.0 or even 3.0 - developers worked really hard complying with those requirements, and felt confident that their tools would be acceptable to Apple. But then Apple dropped the v4.0 SDK bomb, all all that investment was gone in a flash, if you'll pardon the pun.



    And that's not the end of their abusive relationship with developers. Oh, so many wish it were. Here's only the latest of a long and growing list of devs who've been notified that their apps will be pulled from the AppStore for arbitrary reasons - AFTER they had complied with every rule Apple publishes:



    http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/0...ore-Developers





    Truth is to attract good developers you need to be a reliable, trustworthy business partner, so you won't lure people into spending thousands making apps for your platform only to have that investment thrown away by yet another unexpected policy change.



    "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."



    Developers and their VCs around the world are now reconsidering the wisdom of doing business with Apple. It's just too risky with such a fickle company.
  • Reply 18 of 25
    glockpopglockpop Posts: 69member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RationalTroll View Post


    Developers and their VCs around the world are now reconsidering the wisdom of doing business with Apple. It's just too risky with such a fickle company.



    I think you got it backwards. It's Apple that's wising up to realize that it can't allow third party developers and "partners" (like Microsoft and Google) from taking its platforms away and stealing all their goodwill and innovation to create mildly derivative works.



    Apple makes the product and creates the platform. Developers are along for the ride. Look at the most successful platforms. They're not power to the people Linux, they're top down closed systems like the Xbox, DS, Wii, PlayStation, etc. That's the model Apple is chasing. Google is chasing a Linux model.



    We'll see if ideology + a third rate product wins out over a strong product lacking pretentiousness.



    It did for Windows, and it appears to be working for the iPhone OS.
  • Reply 19 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Glockpop View Post


    Apple makes the product and creates the platform. Developers are along for the ride. Look at the most successful platforms. They're not power to the people Linux, they're top down closed systems like the Xbox, DS, Wii, PlayStation, etc. That's the model Apple is chasing. Google is chasing a Linux model.



    But please note that no other platform in the history of computing has dictated what languages one can use to program for it, or completely forbidden the proven cost-savings that come from cross-platform frameworks.



    It's a big gamble for developers: toss out the workflows and methods that have brought the industry this far, only to limit your deployment to a store run by a company that has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to destroy the value of your investment at any time without notice.



    Having been burned once, and seeing more burned every week, fewer and fewer will take on that unnecessary risk for their businesses.





    Quote:

    We'll see if ideology + a third rate product wins out over a strong product lacking pretentiousness.



    I don't understand the ideology reference, but I'm no philosophy major. Instead of attempting to unravel that obscurity I'll just leave you with this simple business prediction:



    Within three years Apple will reverse its stance on cross-platform frameworks for iPhone OS. And by the time they do, they'll already have lost so many developers and VCs to their competitors that it'll be too late to help them.



    We'll see....
  • Reply 20 of 25
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    So developers don't like making money.



    OK, interesting viewpoint.



    The developers who want loads of cash will go with the strongest platform i.e. Apple.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RationalTroll View Post


    But please note that no other platform in the history of computing has dictated what languages one can use to program for it, or completely forbidden the proven cost-savings that come from cross-platform frameworks.



    It's a big gamble for developers: toss out the workflows and methods that have brought the industry this far, only to limit your deployment to a store run by a company that has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to destroy the value of your investment at any time without notice.



    Having been burned once, and seeing more burned every week, fewer and fewer will take on that unnecessary risk for their businesses.







    I don't understand the ideology reference, but I'm no philosophy major. Instead of attempting to unravel that obscurity I'll just leave you with this simple business prediction:



    Within three years Apple will reverse its stance on cross-platform frameworks for iPhone OS. And by the time they do, they'll already have lost so many developers and VCs to their competitors that it'll be too late to help them.



    We'll see....



    One of the things I hate about the Android Market is all the currencies used, you have pricing in $, £, € and god knows what else, that's why I have never paid for an App on my Magic.
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