We're Just Not That Into You, iPhone Apps 205
maximus1 writes "A new report compiled by iPhone analytics firm Pinch Media finds the majority of people stop using apps the day after they download them, and only 1 percent develop a long-term relationship with any given app. Instead, most tend to lose interest after a few minutes, according to this article. Paid apps fare slightly better. 30% of the people downloading a paid app return the next day compared to 20% who download a free app. No surprises that the survey found that apps that focused on games and entertainment seem to outlast other categories when it comes to long-term love."
Re:It's shareware all over again. (Score:3, Informative)
I imagine that most of the things are impulse downloads or purchases, done when there isn't anything better to do and then ignored until it becomes time to clean the things out.
When I switched to a Blackberry, I was originally a bit discomforted that there are fairly few applications for the platform. But I think they're running neck and neck in terms of useful applications.
Re:iphone = toy (Score:3, Informative)
The iPhone can connect to an exchange server, and read excel and word files.
Need to expand survey?? (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps this survey only concentrated on iPhone users and not iPod Touch users. Perhaps those who have iPhones are not as interested in apps as they are in communication. I've found that most iPod Touch users (of which I and my 12-year-old son are) usually fill up there iPods with multiple pages of apps. Though I have bought apps, I would say that most of the apps I have are free. I had jailbroken my iPod Touch previous to the creation of the app store. If the app store didn't offer free apps along with the paid ones, it's possible I would have kept my iPod jailbroken. I haven't tired of many apps, and I use some apps everyday (like Chess Genius, iSports, iReversi, Sudoku, Facebook, WorldWiki, Maps, Stocks, etc...). Other apps like Guitar Chords aren't really the kind of app you use everyday, but are nice to have when you need them. So I dispute the claims of this survey. I think "we" are very much into appstore apps. I wonder if these are the findings of a envious HP iPaq owner or a "Zune Person"...
Re:Does it matter? (Score:1, Informative)
They mention the specific case of ad-supported applications, in which case it does matter because this means they're pretty much unsustainable. It's also useful for adjusting expectations about how much word-of-mouth advertising you're likely to get.
It isn't a problem, but it does matter.
Re:It's shareware all over again. (Score:2, Informative)
It's a return to the PD and shareware library ethos of old (old? I mean late 80s/early 90s). I remember paying a buck or two for a disk with a raft of simple, mostly awful Commadore Amiga games. Fred Fish anyone?
Not really - the point is that these applications and games were freely distributable, and before the Internet, you were paying to cover the costs of distributing the material on disks. It's no different to buying Linux on CD.
Poor quality shareware (or rather, crippleware/trialware) was more a problem on Windows in the 90s, where all sorts of trivial applications that might be free on other platforms, charged you £20 on Windows.
Although yes, it's true that most stuff would be awful. That applies to anything really - free or not.