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Global App Usage Still Rising, and Users in the US Spend 135 Minutes a Day in Them (geekwire.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: There's a reason that everyone you look at it is looking at a smartphone. According to the folks whose job it is to track such things, people can't get enough of apps, and global usage of them continues to increase. In its latest usage report, App Annie takes a look at the average user's app usage for the first quarter of 2017 and reaches the conclusion that mobile apps have become vital to our day-to-day lives. Last year's report found that time spent in apps reached 1 trillion hours. The average smartphone user, in the United States and other countries analyzed, used over 30 apps per month. That's about a third of the number that are actually installed on phones in the U.S. People use about 10 apps every day, the data shows, with iPhone users using slightly more than Android users. Utilities and tools are the most commonly used apps on a monthly basis, thanks to pre-installed apps such as Safari on iOS and Google on Android.

47 comments

  1. Apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Appy appers know that apps.... ah, fuck it.

    1. Re:Apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's ok, just be happy that you have Safari pre-installed on iOS and Google pre-installed on Android.

    2. Re:Apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People continue to be stupid. News at 11.

      Much like "FreeCell is the most important application in world history! - Microsoft, 1998"

    3. Re: Apps! by sound+vision · · Score: 2

      Seriously though - everything I do with an "app" is either functionality that used to be embedded in my flip phone's OS, or something I did on my laptop, or on the game console hooked up to the TV.

    4. Re: Apps! by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      Yep. Every time you make a phone call a dialer app is used, even.

    5. Re:Apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People continue to be stupid.

      I don't know. I figure wasting time in Fire Emblem: Heroes is probably more intelligent than wasting my time reading shitposts and shitposting on Slashdot.

    6. Re: Apps! by XXongo · · Score: 1

      Yep. Every time you make a phone call a dialer app is used, even.

      Phone call? You mean that smartphones have that capability now?

      I suppose there is probably a niche market for actually talking to people on your phone, although I'm not sure who would want that, when it's so much easier to just text them or tag them on a social media post.

    7. Re:Apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It really isn't.

    8. Re:Apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      meh you are not the real appy apps apperty apps guy. FRAUD!

    9. Re:Apps! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Users in the US Spend 135 Minutes a Day in Them

      Yeah, most of it while driving.

    10. Re: Apps! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I use a dumb phone for that, you insensitive clod!

    11. Re:Apps! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, apping scales horizontally.

  2. Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The average day of the poor Millennial.

    1. Re:Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're totally wrong. They blame Trump for their problems a lot more then they use apps.

    2. Re:Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump is trying to kill us all.

    3. Re:Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by psergiu · · Score: 1

      Above message was posted from the "BLM\:TRMP" App. The official App interface for the Blm.trmp Blame-Trump-As-A-Service Cloud App. Available now from all the App Stores.

      --
      1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
    4. Re:Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Name something Trump has done that has ruined your life. No, the media telling you your life is ruined doesn't count. Something tangible, please.

      Trump is a horrible person, but the President's real power is extremely limited. He can't ruin your life because he doesn't have the power to. If your life sucks, look in the mirror.

    5. Re:Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      Above message was posted from the "BLM\:TRMP" App. The official App interface for the Blm.trmp Blame-Trump-As-A-Service Cloud App. Available now from all the App Stores.

      I would pay for this app. Turnabout is fair play given 2008-16, you special, conservative snowflake.

    6. Re:Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by thecatt · · Score: 1

      This is the wisest comment I've read all day. I wish I had mod points.

    7. Re: Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama's moves did a good job crippling the well being of millions. So yeah, a president can in a macro way wreck your day. That said Trump has yet to ruin anyone's lives. Cept the liberal snowflakes. There pretty ass mad about everything. But they probably needed there lives ruined if they can go into frothing rages over nothing.

    8. Re: Use apps, blame Trump, use apps by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      In what way? During Obama's tenure, right wing media made billions of dollars. As did gun manufacturers and ammo suppliers. Government departments expanded. People got healthcare.

      Some wars were started, others continued.

      What's not to like?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  3. Amazon Kindle... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    That sounds about right. I split my time between the Kindle App on the iPhone when I ride the express bus to and fro work, and a Kindle when I read in bed.

  4. Kinda interested what the distribution looks like by Solandri · · Score: 1

    Is it like credit card debt? Where the average U.S. household has $6000 in credit card debt. But if you look closer at the numbers you find that the vast majority pay off their credit card bill every month or carry a balance of less than $1000, and the average is skewed high because about 10% of households have like $50,000 balances on their credit cards.

    So is that 140 min/day app use (in the U.S.) typical of most users? Or is it just a small percentage of hardcore users on their phones every waking minute who are skewing the mean?

  5. I used ZERO apps this year! Congratulate me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not easy to avoid all apps, android, iOS, Windoze, or "other" - in fact it's downright ridiculous just to get by without them as other services are culled in their favor.

    I deserve luddite praise or something.

  6. Or applications, back in the day by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

    I also use plenty of userspace programs on automatic data processing machines during the day.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    1. Re:Or applications, back in the day by avandesande · · Score: 1

      I spend my days writing software by manipulating ferrite core memory with a pin!

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
  7. Re:Kinda interested what the distribution looks li by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Or is it just a small percentage of hardcore users on their phones every waking minute who are skewing the mean?

    A friend of mine is such a hard-core user of his iPhone that he carries three backup batteries. I keep telling him to turn off the Facebook app if he wants to get through the day on a single charge.

  8. Does it even matter? by Daetrin · · Score: 1

    Okay, i admit upfront that i am probably a horrible example of a human being and i need to get outside more. But....

    Scenario one: I spend an hour reading Slashdot on my PC, then two hours reading twitter on my PC, then three hours playing FF14 on my PC or PS4.

    Scenario two: I spend an hour reading Slashdot on my phone, then two hours reading twitter on my phone, then three hours playing FFRK on my phone

    By the metrics they seem to be using in scenario one i spent zero minutes using apps, but in scenario two i spent 360 minutes using apps. Arguments about usability of the two formats aside, how is my life fundamentally different in those two scenarios? And yet in once case i'm skewing the average in one direction and in the second i'm skewing the average the other way.

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    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  9. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can read my favorit websites (not slashdot) in my local park or lake shore. Try this in the 90's. Thank you Saint steve jobs for inventing smartphones lol...

  10. Advantage of Apps by Thelasko · · Score: 1

    The only advantage I find for most of the apps available is that it bypasses the adblocker in my browser. Of course, this is not an advantage for me, but for the people who make money off of those ads.

    There are a few exceptions for apps that make use of may device's hardware. But not many.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  11. Report souce by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 2

    Report source is appannie, which is a app marketing company. It'll very unlikely they'll say something different (like the few months ago report saying the average user install less then one new app by month).

  12. crApps by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

    Apps I've used today:

    Apps I've used in the last week:

    Apps I've used in the last month:
    A web browser

    Unless you want to include the phone's dialer or something equally silly. The emphasis on the 'apps' model seems, to me at least, to cheapen software as a whole. It does this by swamping the markets with useless or single-purpose dreck. Note that I am not trying to imply that all apps are so narrow in scope, or at all useless, but I hold that the overwhelming majority of them are. A huge portion of them are dependent on external services, making them more the equivalent of a thin front-end to a website.

    I likewise am bothered by the trend away from locally run programs in favor of web-based systems, but my unabashed contempt for apps has me seeing browser-based stuff as reasonable by comparison.

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  13. Are you sure? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Everyone I know is getting rid of apps.

    Everyone.

    And I work at a major university, so most of the people I know are 20 somethings.

    Maybe you should ask yourself who gave you that data, and what their end goal is, and "who" were the people "polled"?

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Are you sure? by Nethead · · Score: 1

      I actually used an app yesterday to deposit an expense check. Is listening to a podcast considered using an app? Other than that, not much, maybe a picture of some cables in a rack, but that's about it.

      --
      -- I have a private email server in my basement.
    2. Re:Are you sure? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      No, the podcasts are part of the basic feature set. Literally, I think the only apps on my phone are: Sounders ticket app for passholders, Pokemon Go, and ... Twitter.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  14. Re: Apps! the phone dialer by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Most young people never phone people and rarely answer any calls, unless it's their mom or their SO

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  15. Re:I used ZERO apps this year! Congratulate me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I too used Zero Apps. However, about that deserving luddite praise or something...
    In 1813, around 70 "Luddites" were hanged, and an equal number transported to work the deadly Iocaine Mines in Australia. The "Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812" made Luddism a Capital Offence, later confirmed by the "Destroying Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1817".
    Best keep quiet about the whole thing.

  16. Google is an app? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there really an app on Android phones called, "Google", like there is an app on iOS called "Safari?"

    1. Re:Google is an app? by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      on mine it's called chrome

    2. Re:Google is an app? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      No, the google app is called "Google App," not "Google." It is the search app.

      It runs when you do a generic search while not in a browser, for example by swiping from the "home" button. It also provides a widget that you can place on the screen to do searches. And running that app will provide a button to activate a voice search, which is useful for people that don't have voice controls turned on all the time.

  17. Re: Apps! the phone dialer by geekmux · · Score: 1

    Most young people never phone people and rarely answer any calls, unless it's their mom or their SO

    Translation: Most young people have turned into electronic introverts, and avoid speaking to other humans unless absolutely necessary. Rather ironic, since social media has turned narcissism into a profession.

    Can't wait to see how technology will psychologically fuck up the next generation. I'm sure by then VR friends will be waaaay better than having to deal with some meatsack.

  18. Re:Kinda interested what the distribution looks li by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of those people with massive credit card debt are either rich/high-income or possibly entrepreneurs (who might be going out of business, but it's different than consumer debt).

    Likewise, some of these heavy app users are business users who run their business/job on the go with a phone.

  19. Re: Apps! the phone dialer by Aighearach · · Score: 1

    I'm "not as young as I used to be" and I don't answer calls either. Unless it is my SO.

    If people were capable of limiting synchronous communication to transferring important information, I'd answer it.

    They don't, so if they want to communicate they're going to need to use an asynchronous method for sure. Or wait until my physical location is synchronized with theirs for some reason.

  20. Nearly half of households have a landline by tepples · · Score: 1

    I suppose there is probably a niche market for actually talking to people on your phone, although I'm not sure who would want that, when it's so much easier to just text them

    For calling a landline, which nearly half of all U.S. households still have. Landlines can receive voice calls without having to pay for airtime, but they usually can't receive text messages.

    or tag them on a social media post.

    Good luck tagging me on Facebook when I don't have a Facebook account. I use Twitter.

  21. ACA repeal, for one by tepples · · Score: 1

    Name something Trump has done that has ruined your life.

    Does overseeing the House's recent gutting of the Affordable Care Act's preexisting condition coverage count? That will financially ruin millions of U.S. residents once the Senate signs off on it.

  22. com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox by tepples · · Score: 1

    There's an app called "Google" that performs Google searches and handles the OK Google (voice search) and Google Now (notifications of weather, nearby restaurants, and the like) features.

  23. Statistically correct, but culturally fake news by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    When I start a hike, I fire up Motion-X GPS on my Jesus phone. Over the next five or six hours, it tracks my mileage, route and elevation gain. I was technically "in" the app for all this time but I was not focusing on the phone.