Half of U.S. smartphone users download zero apps per month

To install app you first need to open play/app store, then find app you need, then download/install it and then find it in your list of apps when you need it.

"40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load" Installing app takes at least 30 seconds. I hate it when i visit website and it load native app, let aside installing new app.

This is one of the reasons why i believe Progressive Web Apps will replace most of native mobile and desktop apps in near future.

Hybrid mobile apps are just a step in that direction. Browsers just need to implement all APIs for access to device native functions, and Google is already pushing in that direction. Some of functionality already exist via Service Workers.

You can actually build Progressive Web App today: http://blog.ionic.io/what-is-a-progressive-web-app/

I've had my phone for a bit more than two years now, and I can tell that once I installed all the apps I routinely use, why should I routinely install new stuff?

I sometimes try new stuff, but quite frankly once my phone does what I want it to do, I don't really care that much about new and trendy stuff anymore.

For many, like my 80 yr old father, this journey was a forced march. He was perfectly happy with his flip phone and it's large, tactile buttons. I was also content not having to provide remote tech support to a man who was alive when horse and carriages were still a viable form of transportation. (As an aside, that generation has really seen some ... stuff). Once his phone succumbed to its planned obsolescence, he had no choice but to upgrade.

I tried to introduce him to apps. However, in the 4+ years since he's had a smartphone, he's downloaded and used only two apps: one for checking the lottery and the other is a collection of virtual slot machines.

All one has to do is look at their parents, grandparents, elderly relatives, etc. to see that this is assumption is a no-brainer.

EDIT: I neglected to mention why I don't consume as many apps as I'd like to. Google, a company whose name has become a synonym for search, and Apple have the most obtuse platforms for discovering them. In the play store, I can only search by keyword. There is only one filter, # of stars and up. There is no way in the app stores to sort the data or filter it by any other means. The recommendations, like most recommendations engines is it or miss. They hide the number of installs an app has (which for me is much more important than the number of stars or ratings it has) until you go to its page/card. I understand why, but smaller apps get buried in the noise anyway. 99% of the apps I install are discovered either through either word of mouth or sites like producthunt