Half of U.S. Smartphone Users Aren't Downloading Apps, Data Shows

I stopped downloading apps because, first and foremost, they enabled every stupid little company to access my notifications bar. Now every stupid little marketing droid is sending me stupid chipper messages about whatever stupid thing they think I should care about.

Yes I can turn them off. No I should not have to. These people should respect other peoples' space.

And it's gotten worse! If polluting the notifications bar isn't pathetic enough, Facebook now begs you to "help thousands of users" with a review in-app. Windows 10 lockscreen is begging me to try Cortana. EVEN MY F@%#! camera app does this now!! STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO ASSHOLES!

Alternate title: 50% of smartphone users continue to click "X" when prompted to install a specific app when visiting a website.

Is it too much to hope that companies get the hint and fully embrace the mobile web?

I know this is anecdata, but honestly at this point I'm a negative datapoint for them: I am slowly deleting more and more apps off my phone as the months go on. Mobile gaming never worked out for me (it's all terrible all the time) and honestly, my phone is for maps and talking to friends, all of which I can do in 2-3 apps. The rest is just a slow accumulation of junk I realise I don't care about.

"ComScore’s Andrew Lipsman says it’s more a reflection that his company has improved its methodology since then — rather than any drastic changes in the app economy"

http://www.recode.net/2016/9/16/12933780/average-app-downloa...

I wonder what their methodology is? Their first attempt was off by a large margin if it went from 33% to 49%.

I don't find this statistic all that shocking; downloading one app a month on average is actually quite a lot. Nearly 40% of users download 2 or more! I'm not sure what a "healthy" amount of app downloads would be if this isn't it -- at some point users are limited by the storage of their devices and their attention span.

Once you downloaded all the apps that you need, it is not hard to believe that you would then download only 1 application every 3 months, or even less often (rounded off makes it 0 apps per month).

Most apps aren't worth downloading. Once you get pass the initial excitement of owning your first smartphone, downloading an app that's just a wrapper for a website isn't worth the time.

> It's also bad news for app makers, because it may reflect a shift in consumers from app-hungry to app-apathetic.

Come on, you're not going to write "app-athetic" here?

As a solo developer, it's hard for me to gauge exactly where we are on the 'app' technology trajectory. My enthusiasm for any native mobile endeavour is pretty much shot by now. So, so much work for such little payoff.

Most folks I know will use the 'Big Four' apps for social - Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and to a lesser extent Twitter. Anything else gets googled. So what opportunity is left? I have no idea - maybe a big one. I can't tell at this point. I don't use apps. The thing is, I wonder if this pessimism existed towards the web in its early days, which obviously turned out to be a huge opportunity for those that didn't dismiss it when things were rough (Browser wars, IE, Web 1.0).

Why would I want to when all apps seem to request root access to my entire phone as a requirement to install them?

That's because they're useless for 80% of the stuff I do. If I'm looking at the weather, I don't need a weather app. You can get my location from my browser you can show me everything there. Why do I need to download?

Pinterest? Same thing.

Tumblr? Same

Why do I need apps to do these things. Sometimes apps are handy but I will find them if I need them. You forcing me to use them does nothing but make me find somewhere else to visit!

My mother, father, wife, and mother-in-law all do not know their itunes passwords so they couldn't even download an app even if they tried. They probably tried once, got frustrated, and gave up forever. I am sure this is a significant portion of the "problem".

If we included all the uninstalls that people do (or try to do) of of the bloatware that comes installed with phones, I wonder if we'd hit a negative number.

If you can't be bothered to design for mobile web, I probably won't be bothered to download your app. I guess I'm not alone in that.

Alternate title: You probably don't need an app for that; a mobile site works just fine.

Wonder what the numbers are for people that have _never_ downloaded an app.

We've come full circle to AOL. Everything is curated and walled off.

The mobile gaming trend is terrible. Even some of the nicer game apps (like "two dots") are becoming blatant Skinner box slot machines. The sole purpose of the mechanics and design is to draw you in, keep you coming back, and subtly suggest endless creative ways of "paying to win". It's disgusting.

I know they are between and a rock and a hard place in terms of actually making any money, but I honestly would rather have zero mobile games than the current adversarial and manipulative ones.

What's the breakdown by platform? Also I wasn't impressed that it took 3 clicks to eventually try and reach Comscore's data only to find out you need to signup for it.

Right. I don't even have Google's store installed on my phone. Just F-Droid, for free software, ZANavi, for GPS, and Firefox. I use only about 50-100MB of data per month.

A huge number of apps exist, it seems, either to get hooks into you in some way, or just to exist because someone up the chain said, "We need an app."

To be honest, nothing reminds me so much of the atmosphere around the 80's videogame crash as much as apps today. It's easier, and frankly more rewarding not to play that game at all, than to try and sift through the mess.

My experience with apps is that they're active when you're not using them, they slow everything down, and they drain battery; not to mention how many of them want to violate your personal information just short of knowing the size of your last dump.

Essentially most apps are malware with a bright coat of "legitimate" colored paint.

Like most people I know, I download a bunch of apps when I set up a new phone, and I don't download apps frequently after that.

I simply haven't found many newly released apps compelling. I think the most recent app I downloaded was Uber Eats back in June or July.

I suspect that most users are like this. Not everyone is trying all the latest games.

Hint Hint, this might just be intentional. I've been using Youtube.com over the YouTube app because the crazy app crashes all the time and I get frustrated with it popping up as my default app for playing back youtube videos. I need to get around to changing that setting, might just be today.

I don't use many apps either, in fact I have uninstalled several because the updates are a bit of a burden. I know why they exist and am grateful, but if I haven't opened say "go to meeting" in nine months, I don't need it updated every month etc.

I already downloaded all the apps I ever needed - about 10 on the phone (Android) and a similar number on the iPad. I see no reason to install more - I have no need and no interest. So a bright developer created an app - what about it? It does not mean I need it.

I have a bunch of apps I use all the time and when buying a new phone I just install those; I never look for anything new. There might be better apps for some of the things I'm doing but I cannot find them and i'm not going to try all apps out... Most people I know have the same behavior. Why look for other apps if you can already do all you need? That said; I use my phone far more than my laptop for work and I do miss apps which other people do not seem to miss which, I guess, I should make some time. I do search for those every few months and if something would pop up I would download it.

150 million US Smartphone Users Are Downloading Apps, Data Shows

At some point (already?) there will be so many smartphone users that even if only 50% of smartphone users download apps then smartphone apps will be bigger than almost anything else.

I was working in an App which builds Apps to local businesses. When it was ready, I realized that local businesses don't need an App at all. It was a f* moment. So I pivoted the App to build websites too, which makes much more sense to local businesses. I wish I had have this realization earlier.

we live in an attention based economy. You have to buy people's attention for your app.

I don't like apps for websites that work well in the browser. Games do not work in mobile browsers, so those I may download (but I don't really play games). Apps such as Facebook and Snapchat waste battery and attempt to datamine. I try to keep my phone down to as little apps as possible because I hate rogue battery use and data mining, but many apps choose to ignore those wishes. If google play services wasn't required for some apps that I would try, I wouldn't have them installed.

What did they miss? In those specific months? I can't think of any apps I installed in that timeframe.

With a 16gb iPhone, there isn't enough space to download new apps.