Half Of US Smartphone Users Download Zero Apps Per Month (recode.net)

Apple's iOS users may have downloaded more than 140 billion apps since the App Store was launched in 2008, but the reality is that a huge number of people just don't try out so many apps anymore. We noted a few weeks ago how people were showing less interest towards apps, and now we have more confirmation on that front. According to comScore, some 49 percent of U.S. smartphone users download zero apps in a typical month. Recode reports: Of the 51 percent of smartphone owners who do download apps during the course of a month, "the average number downloaded per person is 3.5," comScore's report says. "However, the total number of app downloads is highly concentrated at the top, with 13 percent of smartphone owners accounting for more than half of all download activity in a given month."

Comments

You mean new apps right?

[SuperKendall]

Because quite a lot of those people supposedly not downloading apps in a month, are downloading updates...

There is a certain amount of mental energy used just to keep up with app churn.

I no longer view them as apps

[QuietLagoon]

Instead I now view them as self-inflicted malware and eavesdropping opportunities.

.
I see no reason to intentionally install malware on my phone.

Flipphone users

[avandesande]

How many of these 'non downloaders' are former flip-phone users that bought a smart phone due to their low price and obsequiousness?

Re:Flipphone users

[Anonymous Coward]

ubiquitousness

Not surprising

[dejitaru]

Once you have the apps you need, why change? Mayyybe if you're extremely bored and decide to download a new game, or (especially) if you're an early adopter and have to fulfill some random desire to try new apps.

It's like my desktop computer, as a teen I was downloading a lot of software and installing it out of sheer curiosity... now though... meh. The only new programs I download are games.

Re:Not surprising

[nine-times]

Once you have the apps you need, why change?

I think the problem is that the "new economy" is supposed to be driven by the idea that, every month, a different group of 20 year-olds in California will come out with another mobile app that will revolutionize the economy, solve all of our problems, and change everyone's life. You know, like the way Foursquare changed the way we all socialize, or how Words with Friends completely changed the world? So if everyone isn't constantly buying the trendy new apps, then the world stops improving, the "new economy" collapses, and we all die horrible deaths.

Seriously, though, the way some people talk, you'd think that's how this all works. In reality, a lot of the startup culture is overhyped nonsense that nobody is calling bullshit on because too many people have an economic incentive to keep people believing the nonsense. I'd bet an awful lot of people have something like 10 apps installed on their phone (excluding built-in ones), and only 5 get regular use-- and of those, 3 of them should really just be websites, and there's no real reason why they need to be applications except it makes them slightly easier to access.

Smart people

[Anonymous Coward]

No shit people don't download apps. It's bad enough using a smartphone. Downloading apps is like licking a genital sore. Why would you do it unless you wanted to be infected with something?