Most smartphone users download zero apps per month

[froggyboy604]

Most US smartphone owners download zero apps in a typical month, according to comScore’s new mobile app report.

Only about one-third of smartphone owners download any apps in an average month, with the bulk of those downloading one to three apps. The top 7% of smartphone owners account for “nearly half of all download activity in a given month,” comScore reports.

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I wonder could this is a future sign that the smartphone fad is slowing down because people are not trying as many new apps, or using as many apps.

I bet some people who don't use apps may go back to using regular cell phones because they are more durable, have longer battery life, and are more portable.

I think the main reason people download zero apps a month is because of the small size of the storage space which is 8GB of space on cheaper smartphones.

Plus, a lot of people just use a Smartphone for making voice calls, and texts.

 

[hissae2]

I doubt people will be going back to old phones... some people will prefer smartphones for its touchscreen. And you can get any phone free with a two year contract here so makes sense to get an expensive phone.

 

[froggyboy604]

I think for prepaid phones, regular older style cell phones are still a better value in Canada, and the US because you can buy a older style phone for $50 or less, and sometimes you even get a months or more of free service which saves users about $10-40 for the first month.

 

[hissae2]

That's true but you could also get a smartphone for not much more than that, you can get a low end smartphone for as little as $100. Probably less I haven't really looked. I agree people will continue using old phones because they're cheap but I don't see people switching back after using a smartphone.

 

[froggyboy604]

I seen some prepaid smartphones made by less popular brands like ZTE, and Huawei for about $60 at local stores, so they can be pretty good deal espiecally if you also plan to use apps like MP3 player, video players, Instant messengers, free internet voice chat programs and GPS.

 

[VirusZero]

I think some reason why most people don't download new apps are because they're satisfied with what they have.

I mean if you have an app for listening to music, why do you need 3 more that do the same thing? Especially if they don't offer any real major features that you don't already have.
Naturally if, for example, you had Music player App 1 that didn't have a shuffle feature (and that was a concern for you) and you saw Music app 2 that did... you'd probably get it. But then you might not want/need to download any more apps for a while because your needs have been met.

 

[froggyboy604]

It's also possible that a lot of App makers are not advertising their Apps enough to the public by using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Blog posts, and other types of free and paid online and offline advertising.

The app description on their app page also could of been written poorly by the app maker which does not convince as many people to download their apps over a more popular app like Skype.

The app charts also mostly display popular apps which people already have, and all the less popular apps are buried at the bottom, or require people to search for them with very specific keywords.

I think if Google and Apple made a section of their app store for independent apps made by one person or smaller companies, more people will try more apps from different app makers.