Users download their apps from the App Store for the iPhone or iPod Touch, test it on the old maxim of suck it and see. If it is not what they want  — one hesitates to use the word ’sucks’ — do not use it again. The price is free or minimal. There is no compulsion to force yourself to like and use the program. And most users don’t. Most vote ’suck’

Pinch Media collected some data on the matter. People who own an iPhone tend to download a lot of applications, particularly free ones. Yes, they probably fiddle with them if they get them but if they are of no direct use, they stop using them. (In fact, this happens with computers but not to such a great extent.

Mobile in a survey found that just 20 percent of users return to an application the day after it is downloaded. This figure drops to just 5 percent after one month. This essentially means that for every twenty apps that you download from the App Store, you’ll probably only still be using one of those 30 days later.

With all the developers bombarding the marketplace with apps, it has also become increasingly difficult to break into the Top 25 or Top 100 in the App Store.

Six months ago, you only needed to get 1,000 and 10,000 downloads in a 24-hour period to get in the Top 100 or Top 25 of the day. Today, those respective figures jump to 5,000 and 20,000.

Average iPhone app usage declines rapidly after first download.

Pinch Media found just 20 percent of users even return to run a free application again the day after it’s downloaded. As time goes on, that decline continues, eventually settling below 5 percent at the one month elapsed mark and nearing zero after three months.

Yardley noted that paid apps are used slightly more than free ones and for slightly longer periods. Using myself as a test device I went back through every program I have ever downloaded to see what use I made of them. Very little. With some, none.  So I had a good clear out. The thought is we should do a lot of testing and then write a long review with the working title of: ‘These Apps do not suck.’ Or something like that.

Related:

Sign a petition to free the new iPod Touch update and apps

MacWorld: iPod Touch 1.1.3 update includes new apps, for a price

App Store averaging 5.4 million daily downloads

Most popular Touch and iPhone apps are games

Camera equipped iPods an all but done deal…

Entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 2:52 am under Free Apps, Games, Open Source, iPhone, iPod Touch.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
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