Add this one to the interesting and confusing column. But you should still pay close attention.
Take a look at the following:
- 73 percent of Blackberry owners have downloaded 5 or fewer applications; in contrast, 72 percent of iPhone owners have downloaded 10 or more applications. [Source]
- Smartphone Owners Only Use Half of Installed Applications Regularly (Only 57% of all Smartphone applications on a device are being used regularly).
- Apple users download and install the most applications, [but] they do not necessarily use the installed applications any more than other Smartphone users do on a regular basis. Android users report that they have removed one-third of the apps that they had installed on their Smartphones, while BlackBerry users keep almost all of the applications they download. [Source for this and previous point]
With respect to iPhone users the previous point is further reinforced by the stats over at the Flurry Blog a few weeks ago:
Loyalty by Application Category
Only an average of 25% of iPhone applications are used after three months. If you allow me to mix some numbers we can make a jump and perhaps even conclude that BlackBerry users are more loyal and less fickle than iPhone users. But before we do that, let’s take some further liberties with the numbers.
Some Crazy And Loose Analysis
- If we take the following statements from above…
- ‘57% of all Smartphone applications on a device are being used regularly’
- ‘73 percent of Blackberry owners have downloaded 5 or fewer applications‘
- and on top of these we add the fact that ‘BlackBerry users keep almost all of the applications they download’
- Then we could loosely conclude (I sound like an analyst don’t I) that …
BlackBerry users use 2.85 or fewer applications
- We could then also take the following statements from above…
- ‘72 percent of iPhone owners have downloaded 10 or more applications’
- Apple users download and install the most applications, [but] they do not necessarily use the installed applications any more than other Smartphone users do on a regular basis.‘
- ‘57% of all Smartphone applications on a device are being used regularly’
- But to this one we can add the extra ingredients provided by Flurry that on average only 25% of applications are in use after three months.
- Again we could once more loosely conclude (I am now blushing) that …
iPhone users actually use an average of 2.5 applications
Careful With The Numbers
It is actually difficult to know who to believe. Everyone has different numbers and a different story. At times you get the distinct impression that everyone is trying to sell you something (oops, hold on – everyone is!). The numbers above from Strategy Analytics and Flurry seem to me to be more credible than some of the other figures I have seen over the last few months. Did I mention loosely already? Maybe I am being too harsh. Perhaps the problem is that anyone can do anything with numbers (as I have in the above exercise).
Take a look for example at the App Store Market data (also published in this blog) from AppsFire that claims…
an average of 65 apps installed per device
There is certainly a big delta between 2.5 and 65. Back when I wrote it I cautioned against taking those numbers at face value since the sample was both small and probably slanted to power users.
At the end of the day we are all responsible for what we buy into or not; and how we use that information. However, the main conclusion we can draw out of this is one that you probably already know if you have been deploying applications for some time:
Don’t ignore the end user! Or your application will be dropped like a hot potato!
It is still surprising to me how many times I have seen applications deployed or new systems installed without the end user being consulted (or at least studied) and without any awareness of the day-to-day processes. The same applies to mobile consumer applications and that’s where the lifeflow versus workflow idea came from.
In the meantime… what do you think:
- About the numbers and the data being thrown out there?
- Do you believe it? Does it match your reality and what you have seen?
- What does it tell us about the differences between BlackBerry and iPhone users?
Enterprise Mobility Implications - We will touch on these over the next few days. Loyalty in the consumer space is great but when we talk about adoption and ownership in mobile enterprise users we are diving into the deep and murky waters of workflows, design, usability and even mobile application analytics. Stay tuned.
Similar Posts:
- App Store Market Data (from AppsFire)
- BlackBerry Cool: Research Comparing iPhone and BlackBerry Often Flawed
- Made in Quebec Mobile Applications
- Collection of tiny mobile apps for your iPhone (or my Personalized Enterprise Gateway)
- Mobile Search Now With Video – YellowPages.ca iPhone App Updated
- Mobile Application Development: Native or Browser
- Not All Mobile Applications Are Created Equal
- Google Analytics Mobile Reporting
- Is Google Eyeing the Mobile Enterprise with New Management Tools?
- Mobile Banking Overview
{ 1 trackback }
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice post … fun with numbers! And, yes, everyone IS trying to sell you something
… here’s a bit about our company http://www.mob4hire.com. We are a global community of more than 20,000 users in 105 countries on 330 operators who’s SOLE purpose is to help mobile developers make better software. We have a saying at Mob4Hire: “Don’t Crash. Don’t Suck. Get Sticky!” 
I loved the quote in the above blog: “Don’t ignore the end user! Or your application will be dropped like a hot potato!” … 1 star reviews in app storefronts will kill your revenue growth. Of course, what everyone also knows is that it’s difficult to access users in-market, as well as accessing hundreds of different types of handsets for testing … that’s what Mob4Hire solves. I offer this link to a .jpg of “User Feedback in the 10 Steps of the Mobile Development Cycle” for those wanting more info: http://tinyurl.com/yfrhfch
Thanks for readin’
Stephen King, CEO
http://www.Mob4Hire.com
http://www.mob4hire.blogspot.com
Whoops, sorry … the link to the 10 Steps of the Mobile Development Cycle was wrong in my previous post (it’s a link to the thumbnail). Try this: http://tinyurl.com/yhmkcjd
Thanks,
Stephen
Stephen – Thank you for your comments and the link. Interesting model.
Hey Jose,
Thanks for showing your work while crunching the numbers. Not many analysts are comfortable letting everyone see how they make their sausage. Frankly, it makes the analysis more useful because we know what we’re getting.
At this point in the mobile application market, I think it’s important to use both qualitative (like user interviews) and quantitative data (like these stats). The entire market is in flux, as are user habits. There’s not much of this out there.
I suspect that these numbers will vary wildly by category. Game users will likely churn through applications far faster than a business user.
Speaking from personal experience, my kids download more games than I can count. They try them, play with them and delete them when they get tired of them. On the other hand, I (a business user) only occasionally download apps, but if they’re useful I keep them and use them as often as necessary (e.g. when I’m traveling, etc.). Obviously that’s just a single family perspective.
-David
David Eads
Mobile Strategy Partners LLC
http://www.mobilestrategypartners.com
Applications? We need to be more careful about this word. Also free vs paid “applications”. Finally this is all moving fast.
1) Applications: Includes: Front-ends to SaaS applications; Games; Toys (funny sounds, wallpapers, etc.); Utilities; Device Emulators; And real applications. I would bet that real applications is a small percentage of the app in the app store.
2) Free vs paid: Many applications are free because tiny (1 person part-time ISVs) are using “free” for viral marketing. Others are free because they are really front-ends to SaaS or content portals, or ad based back-ends, etc. The front-ends may be more interesting one to watch, as there are many monetization models evolving here.
The Games category has great potential. Game SW is already a huge and growing market, despite the recession. While ad budgets and branding will increasingly dominate this category (following the overall trend in entertainment), the iPhone opens the door to disruptive gaming innovators.
Utiltities may be a sleeper. We have seen PC utilities, eg anti-virus, help Symantec grow to giant size. Let’s watch this.
Device Emulators: The iPhone can simulate or emulate other devices, eg an HP scientific calculator or navigational devices. These applications can command good prices because they emulate devices that cost $100’s. However the sales volumes may be so small that statistics discussed above don’t show this.
Real applications: This is early days. Other impacts are low price expectations by users; small screen, lack of keyboard.
Thanks Fred – I like the different categories you use but I disagree with two things you say:
1. Applications – I am simply using the term to refer to all of the above mentioned by you. To put it simply – something you download onto your device and is supposed to add value to the end user. Value in this case can be simple entertainment through a game all the way up to a ‘device emulator application.’
2. I definitely don’t agree with you to on the ‘real applications’ bit. Everyone of those other app regardless of their simplicity or their use (personal vs enterprise) is still an application.
If you are back and following the conversation I’d like to understand a little more about your definition and criteria for ‘real applications.’
Loyalty is going to be a continuous problem in mobile, the market is flooded with services from businesses with high expectations to getting rich from this environment. The issue is that many are entering the mobile environment without clear understanding of the channel and the mobile user – these instantly loosing traction with their target audience.
Before starting to progress mobile development I encourage businesses to answer three core questions: ’how’ are you going to approach? ’why’ is your offer relevant? and ’what’ do you expect a consumer to do?
This helps to define:
1. Presence – supported devices, (Logical, relevant and trustable)
2. Engagement – utility and features (attractive, functional and Easy to use)
3. Discovery – distribution (accessible, compatible and performant)
4. Revenue – must deliver value first (relevant, influencing and actionable)
Mobile comes with a whole set of new rules. The challenge is that many businesses have not yet figured out these new rules. Most try to adapt what they understand from existing media and simply move it to the next. This will not work. Understand these new rules and the channel can deliver real returns.
The winners will be those not simply with content but those who can recognise and deliver a contextual, relevant tailored offering to a mobile consumer. It will be the ones that ‘get mobile’; those that deliver to the device capabilities, present the expected features, use location well, support social and viral capabilities, add value through marketing and advertising.
http://www.indigo102.com/archives/521
Martin Wilson
CEO
Indigo102
Martin – Great comments. Very succinctly put. Almost too good to be lost in the comment section all the way down here. The Mobile Strategy blog may be turning into one of those blogs I go to mostly read the comments
I did look at your link and it is also worth a read!