Hacker News Reader

Comment by dos1 | Hacker News Reader

I love my iPhone. As an appliance it works great. But I must be in the minority when it comes to using apps. I use two, maybe three, on a monthly basis. Safari, Maps, and sometimes a weather app. I was floored when he said he spends $50-$100 a month on apps. What is he buying?

Also - is there a huge market for mobile purchases? I must be getting old, but I certainly prefer buying things online on a laptop or a desktop.

View on HN

Yeah, seriously, the average smartphone user probably uses about 5-10 apps regularly (by which I mean more than once or twice a month).

I can definitely see the logic in what he's saying, though - less effort == more sales. I'd love to be able to route payments through my phone in shops instead of using cash or card. My phone's easier to get at in my pocket and would let me use apps to interact with that payment data more easily (finance apps, budgeting, etc.).

Another killer feature would be if Apple offered rewards on purchases on iDevices as an incentive for people to use their iDevices vs. credit cards or cash.

Now there's something I hesitate to believe Apple would do. I would much rather pay with my iPhone than use a credit card or cash, I don't need an extra incentive!

This is LevelUp's business model.

For purchases where I need to type in credit card info, yes I prefer desktop over mobile anytime. But I use the Amazon app on my iPhone all the time because its just one click to purchase something. That is the driver behind this idea, if buying on mobile can become simpler than buying on the desktop, why wouldn't people do it?

I can already buy something with one click on Amazon.com from my laptop and desktop. And have been able to for some time. Adding that feature to a mobile phone will help, certainly, but that alone would not make a better shopping experience in my mind. I would still have to have that company's app, or browse their site in my mobile browser, which will always be slower than using a full fledged laptop or desktop.

I agree that if someone could make purchasing simpler on a phone than on a laptop/desktop (possibly through NFC or something) then it could be a preferable approach. But just storing credit cards isn't going to cut it in my opinion.

I think the difference here is that I'm already on my phone or iPad looking at the item in the first place. It's a pleasant experience for me to look up things that I might like, or to grab something I know we need. Oh, we're out of light bulbs? Pull out the phone, Prime them, done, don't need to think about it. It's not that it's easier on the phone/tablet over the laptop, it's that more and more those devices are becoming the first thing I go to.

I actually make quite a few purchases from amazon on my phone. It's pretty easy for me, especially because I have a lot of items I want to buy vetted out, and in my wish list already. Also, there are times when I'm on the move and dont have internet besides my phone, or spur of the moment purchases I'll make as I think of it, that I use my phone for.

Edit: "moving at the speed of business" is actually kinda applicable here, think it, get it done, move on, kinda mentality when I use my phone. On a laptop, I have a tendency to dilly-dally around my purchases and over-think/read too much into reviews and what have you.

I have a few apps I use on my iPhone everyday: reeder for rss, alien blue for reddit, news:yc app for hacker news, tweetbot, and instapaper. These apps alone make me not want to leave iOS for android, otherwise I already would have.

1. His app spend estimate is for his entire household, not him individually.

2. He isn't just talking about buying things online. Note mentions of Square.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com