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."
It's shareware all over again. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm an avid buyer of iPhone apps and games. I get dozens every week. And, yes, just as the article asserts I rarely return to them after a day or two. There are exceptions, such as Tweetie (I'm utterly addicted to Twitter, see sig (and follow me!)), and a few great games (Trism, Enigmo, GeoDefence), but the majority I see as throwaway stuff.
Which is fine.
These apps are priced to be treated like that. 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?
It's pretty much the same thing. There were gems on those disks occasionally. There are gems in the App Library. Long may it continue.
iPhone (now with spyware) (Score:1, Interesting)
read their report and they seem more than happy to admit their apps phone home with these stats
and as they are a "analytics" company not a software company it makes you wonder wether their apps are really spyware with a game tacked on, unless Apple release their stats publicly the only way they can get numbers is by spying on anyone who downloads their crap
analytics is another name for spyware or stalkerware, the methods may be different to regular spyware but the results are the same.
looks like Windows isnt the only vector for this business
Re:iphone = toy (Score:3, Interesting)
Jeez, I am glad i don't have to run fricking outlook, word or excel. I would rather go back to telegrams, tip-ex and a slide rule since these would actually be sufficient to cope with 99.99% of the things that outlook/word/excel are used for in business.
Ahh, it takes me back. To 1999. (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully people won't think the only way to solve that problem will be web based apps (keyword there is "based", not locally hosted web apps masquerading as native apps). They work great on a desktop, but they will always suck on mobile phones. Just how it is with a small form factor.
Obviously things changed completely in 2000. (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a good dozen apps on my Palm that I use on a regular basis. But then I didn't get it until January 2000, so I never had to put up with the sucky apps you hated back in 1999.
Re:Ahh, it takes me back. To 1999. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that the revolutionary change that Apple brings to this situation is the accessibility. For Palm, and WinMob, a PC was usually necessary to install new applications. (Not sure about BlackBerry, Symbian, or the other common Phone OS environments.)
For an iPhone user it's 2 taps and maybe a password, and boom, there's your app. Microsoft has obviously seen what this means for users; they have an app store coming. Google made it a launch feature for Android too, and IIRC even Nokia will be getting into the act for Symbian.
Re:I knew it!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The browser on the iPhone is a revelation. It's the first small-format browser that has generated the same sense of "flow" [xkcd.com] that I get from a full-size browser. I sit down to use it after lunch then look up surprised when 40 minutes have gone by and I'm late for my next meeting.