6 ms·

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

85 points by carlosgg 10y ago

andrewfromx 10y ago
we live in an attention based economy. You have to buy people's attention for your app.
wnevets 10y ago
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.
- MyNameIsFred 10y ago
  That's just it: apps that are just wrappers for a website are never worth the time, yet they are so very common just to say "we have an app!" Actual apps are great, though.
  - twblalock 10y ago
    I think the app extensions are an attempt to drive app usage. For example, in iOS 10, you can easily get data from various apps to send in a message to someone. Google Now cards are increasingly coming from third-party apps. You can't do those things with the mobile web.
  - wnevets 10y ago
    Unless you don't consider games as Actual apps, I gonna have to disagree with you. Most mobile games are also not worth downloading.
- dumbfounder 10y ago
  Using your thumb print for a password on bank apps is like aaahhhhhhhh thank god why didn't this happen earlier. And remote check deposits omfg woooooooo! But you are right for at least 75% of apps.
  - shostack 10y ago
    Yeah, gotta say I dread banking on my Nexus 4. Open app... Switch to 1PW keyboard... Manually entered long vault PW... Search for site because 1PW doesn't recognize the app for some reason... Select site... Click form fields to fill various bits... Ugh.
jscheel 10y ago
Wonder what the numbers are for people that have _never_ downloaded an app.
ohitsdom 10y ago
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?
- wyager 10y ago
  Seriously. I don't want to download some garbage app for every website I just want to browse for 3 minutes. Screw Soundcloud in particular. Imagine if every album required you to use an app specifically for that album. It's basically that annoying. Actually, I probably shouldn't say that; I don't want to give the music industry any ideas.
  - recursive 10y ago
    I've never used the soundcloud website from mobile, but I do really love the app.
  - tokai 10y ago
    There have already been multiple "album" apps from popular artists.[0] Luckily it didn't seem to catch on. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2012/nov/07/music-apps-david-gilmour-lady-gaga https://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2012/nov/07/...
- theorique 10y ago
  News sites in particular are big offenders. I don't need a new app for every two-bit small town newspaper. I have a couple of major ones (WSJ, FT), but if you think I'm going to install the app for your minor newspaper because Google News linked it ...
  - Bartweiss 10y ago
    These are definitely some of the worst. Small-time news sites all push some wretched app they bought off a CDN, and any niche tech news site feels unimportant if it doesn't push an app on every visitor. Meanwhile I have BBC's rather pleasant news app, and consume my other news in-browser or off-phone.
squid_ca 10y ago
Why would I want to when all apps seem to request root access to my entire phone as a requirement to install them?
- javajosh 10y ago
  I was going to say that they want unlimited access to my contacts, my location, my web history, my calls and my network traffic. But "root access" is a more succinct way to put it. I'm glad, actually, that people are growing stingy about installing apps, because it means they are getting smart about protecting their digital assets.
wvenable 10y ago
"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-downloads-per-month-comscore 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.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
betteringred 10y ago
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.
- intrasight 10y ago
  This is the important point for a developer that wants to get traction
increment_i 10y ago
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).
- gm-conspiracy 10y ago
  I wonder if this pessimism existed towards the web in its early days No, lots of unbridled optimism, open standards, and no walled gardens.
- PaulHoule 10y ago
  Things were not that bad back then. The worst thing of the early web was that any practical web browser had to process broken HTML the same way that Netscape Navigator 3 did. Microsoft had the resources to reverse engineer that behavior, and then they designed CSS in such a way that it could not be implemented on the Netscape rendering engine without wrecking it. Mozilla finally caught up, then eventually the undocumented behavior got documented in HTML 5 and it is all roses now.
- drivingmenuts 10y ago
  The web had much more organic growth than apps. Apps have pretty much been rammed down our throats by personal-information-seeking marketroids. Initially, the web didn't promise to be a solution to anything, just a large bazaar of occasionally useful and/or interesting information.
- Anasufovic 10y ago
  Mobile browsers have evolved nicely, the progressive web approach is looking more interesting by the minute.
awqrre 10y ago
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).
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  I have ~30 apps that cover maybe 80% of what I want to do with my phone. I can do another ~18% via mobile web, which covers the one-off tasks that I don't want to download an app (with attendant privacy horrors) to complete. The rest, I download new apps for. Which, as you say, is a handful a year. It's probably more than 4, but most of those are things I'm trying and then promptly uninstall when they're awful. I get why this is drama from a business standpoint, but from a user standpoint it just means that there aren't many things so appealing I download an app to complete them.
- MyNameIsFred 10y ago
  "Android developer" is one of the hats I wear, so I'm instinctively drawn to the "app version" of something. I have dozens of apps I find "essential" and use regularly. But yes, that list has remained mostly constant over the years (at least on my phone; games on my tablet are an exception to this pattern) as different apps and services have fulfilled my essential functions reliably.
  - tdkl 10y ago
    I've recently switched quite some apps for a shortcut to a mobile site, because they just run a background service using some Google shit I don't use (AndroidWearSync - Todoist&Wunderlist, GoogleNowAuth - Strava). Getting rid of the app and using the website/finding an alternative liberates my device.
SG- 10y ago
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.
M_Grey 10y ago
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.
Animats 10y ago
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.
nikki-9696 10y ago
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.
hotgoldminer 10y ago
We've come full circle to AOL. Everything is curated and walled off.
- danellis 10y ago
  Except that's not even remotely true. You can stay in the garden of you want, otherwise you have the rest of... everything.
imagist 10y ago
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.
- jxramos 10y ago
  I've been wondering how to actually uninstall default installed apps. I'd value the disk space a lot more than the app functionality.
  - GFischer 10y ago
    There are several tutorials out there, but it's a pain. I have an AT&T branded LG phone, and it came with lots of crapware. Example of the stuff you have to do: http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-lg-g3/general/guide-how-to-remove-bloatware-att-lg-g3-t2822501 http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-lg-g3/general/guide-how-... Even worse, a "stock" Lenovo K3 Note comes with an unbelievable amount of crap (not surprising to those that followed the Superfish fiasco) - the hardware itself is pretty good and unbeatable at the price point (maybe they subsidize the phone with all that adware?).
  - monocasa 10y ago
    In a lot of cases, these bloatware apps are in the RO root partition, and so you wouldn't really gain usable disk space.
  - severine 10y ago
    Maybe you'd like Disable Manager [1], it's also on F-Droid [2]. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mayong.appdisablemanager&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mayong.app... [2] https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=disable&fdid=com.nagopy.android.disablemanager2 https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=disable&fdid...
emodendroket 10y ago
> 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?
- rdiddly 10y ago
  Agreed - a grievous missed pun app-ortunity. Compensatory content: This does seem to be a natural & logical trajectory for this I'm afraid. Or at least for those who don't fetishize technology but rather just want it to do something for them (which is most people, or I guess, about half of people!). As a brand-new smartphone owner you might be downloading & trying different apps all the time, experimenting, searching... but once you've found the "app for that" for every "that" that you want to do, you're pretty much set. You just maybe dutifully download updates. But even there, you're hoping they don't irrevocably change something you like, and in my case on Android I'm ready with an adb backup to roll back to the previous version.
- claar 10y ago
  They probably did, but their editor (probably wisely) thought the public would miss the pun and end up confused.
twblalock 10y ago
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.
SCdF 10y ago
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.
- yoz-y 10y ago
  To each their own I guess. For me my telephone is my computer for everything except coding and watching movies. However I do agree that having an app for a website is subpar. However I always prefer an app over a web-app (e.g.: yelp)
  - SCdF 10y ago
    So funny you should mention yelp, I just deleted it a week or so ago. I realised I didn't actually use it really much at all, and honestly if I'm out and about (and so am not planning on my computer) I'm perfectly happy to just chance it at a random place than try to over-analyse and pick the optimal meal at the optimal place to eat.
- visarga 10y ago
  I recently deleted dozens of apps off my Android phone. After years of using the phone as intended, a month ago I started getting full screen ads, some with video and sound. They start whenever they want, even if I am using the launcher or the phone is locked. So I reset the phone to factory defaults and only took back a few apps. I don't really need them.
  - Yhippa 10y ago
    The best is when you still get blaring ad sound even though "Total silence" mode is on.
joshmn 10y ago
Alternate title: You probably don't need an app for that; a mobile site works just fine.
jxramos 10y ago
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.
- honkhonkpants 10y ago
  I also use the gmail mobile web site instead of the gmail app, because the web site is fine and it gives me more control over battery and network usage than the native application. Same goes for google calendar. I don't want to give anybody any ideas, but the only way to get me to use these specific apps would be to kill off the web versions.
- visarga 10y ago
  I use youtube.com in Firefox, and it plays sound in background and with the phone locked.
  - jxramos 10y ago
    Cool tip, I'm going to have to try that out for the browser and see if Chrome let's me fly or sink. I can't remember if it was the app or the browser that sunk on this usability.
AdrianB1 10y ago
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.
mixmastamyk 10y ago
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.
tomc1985 10y ago
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!
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  I think notifications are off on iOS by default, and the first time you launch the app, it asks you "[App] wants to send you notifications" and you have to explicitly allow it. Same thing with accessing your contacts/calendar and stuff.
  - tomc1985 10y ago
    Well it isn't on Android.
    - tdkl 10y ago
      You can long-press on the notification and hide it though, since 4.3.
      - tomc1985 10y ago
        Still, users should not have to perform this. There is no consent.
    - massysett 10y ago
      A big reason I switched to iOS is that Apple cares about letting me control what runs on my phone and how much apps can nag me and what they can access. Google does not care about this at all and it's reminiscent of the huge risk of downloading anything on a PC. That's exactly what I'm trying to get away from on the phone.
VLM 10y ago
What did they miss? In those specific months? I can't think of any apps I installed in that timeframe.
Dramatize 10y ago
With a 16gb iPhone, there isn't enough space to download new apps.
dumbfounder 10y ago
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".
- Anasufovic 10y ago
  This is a surprisingly common issue I see even among some of my friends in their 20s. Their apple login was always an afterthought.
- mnkmnk 10y ago
  This also leads to the frustrating circle- Website wants me to install app, OK. But I can't install the app. But website won't show me the content without installing installing the app! Argh!
helthanatos 10y ago
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.
RandomInteger4 10y ago
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.
devgutt 10y ago
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.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
zodPod 10y ago
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!
dwaltrip 10y ago
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.
tluyben2 10y ago
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.
tluyben2 10y ago
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.

85 points by carlosgg 10y ago

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

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.

MyNameIsFred 10y ago
That's just it: apps that are just wrappers for a website are never worth the time, yet they are so very common just to say "we have an app!" Actual apps are great, though.
- twblalock 10y ago
  I think the app extensions are an attempt to drive app usage. For example, in iOS 10, you can easily get data from various apps to send in a message to someone. Google Now cards are increasingly coming from third-party apps. You can't do those things with the mobile web.
- wnevets 10y ago
  Unless you don't consider games as Actual apps, I gonna have to disagree with you. Most mobile games are also not worth downloading.
dumbfounder 10y ago
Using your thumb print for a password on bank apps is like aaahhhhhhhh thank god why didn't this happen earlier. And remote check deposits omfg woooooooo! But you are right for at least 75% of apps.
- shostack 10y ago
  Yeah, gotta say I dread banking on my Nexus 4. Open app... Switch to 1PW keyboard... Manually entered long vault PW... Search for site because 1PW doesn't recognize the app for some reason... Select site... Click form fields to fill various bits... Ugh.

jscheel 10y ago

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

ohitsdom 10y ago

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?

wyager 10y ago
Seriously. I don't want to download some garbage app for every website I just want to browse for 3 minutes. Screw Soundcloud in particular. Imagine if every album required you to use an app specifically for that album. It's basically that annoying. Actually, I probably shouldn't say that; I don't want to give the music industry any ideas.
- recursive 10y ago
  I've never used the soundcloud website from mobile, but I do really love the app.
- tokai 10y ago
  There have already been multiple "album" apps from popular artists.[0] Luckily it didn't seem to catch on. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2012/nov/07/music-apps-david-gilmour-lady-gaga https://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2012/nov/07/...
theorique 10y ago
News sites in particular are big offenders. I don't need a new app for every two-bit small town newspaper. I have a couple of major ones (WSJ, FT), but if you think I'm going to install the app for your minor newspaper because Google News linked it ...
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  These are definitely some of the worst. Small-time news sites all push some wretched app they bought off a CDN, and any niche tech news site feels unimportant if it doesn't push an app on every visitor. Meanwhile I have BBC's rather pleasant news app, and consume my other news in-browser or off-phone.

squid_ca 10y ago

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

javajosh 10y ago
I was going to say that they want unlimited access to my contacts, my location, my web history, my calls and my network traffic. But "root access" is a more succinct way to put it. I'm glad, actually, that people are growing stingy about installing apps, because it means they are getting smart about protecting their digital assets.

wvenable 10y ago

"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-downloads-per-month-comscore 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.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

betteringred 10y ago

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.

intrasight 10y ago
This is the important point for a developer that wants to get traction

increment_i 10y ago

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).

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
I wonder if this pessimism existed towards the web in its early days No, lots of unbridled optimism, open standards, and no walled gardens.
PaulHoule 10y ago
Things were not that bad back then. The worst thing of the early web was that any practical web browser had to process broken HTML the same way that Netscape Navigator 3 did. Microsoft had the resources to reverse engineer that behavior, and then they designed CSS in such a way that it could not be implemented on the Netscape rendering engine without wrecking it. Mozilla finally caught up, then eventually the undocumented behavior got documented in HTML 5 and it is all roses now.
drivingmenuts 10y ago
The web had much more organic growth than apps. Apps have pretty much been rammed down our throats by personal-information-seeking marketroids. Initially, the web didn't promise to be a solution to anything, just a large bazaar of occasionally useful and/or interesting information.
Anasufovic 10y ago
Mobile browsers have evolved nicely, the progressive web approach is looking more interesting by the minute.

awqrre 10y ago

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).

Bartweiss 10y ago
I have ~30 apps that cover maybe 80% of what I want to do with my phone. I can do another ~18% via mobile web, which covers the one-off tasks that I don't want to download an app (with attendant privacy horrors) to complete. The rest, I download new apps for. Which, as you say, is a handful a year. It's probably more than 4, but most of those are things I'm trying and then promptly uninstall when they're awful. I get why this is drama from a business standpoint, but from a user standpoint it just means that there aren't many things so appealing I download an app to complete them.
MyNameIsFred 10y ago
"Android developer" is one of the hats I wear, so I'm instinctively drawn to the "app version" of something. I have dozens of apps I find "essential" and use regularly. But yes, that list has remained mostly constant over the years (at least on my phone; games on my tablet are an exception to this pattern) as different apps and services have fulfilled my essential functions reliably.
- tdkl 10y ago
  I've recently switched quite some apps for a shortcut to a mobile site, because they just run a background service using some Google shit I don't use (AndroidWearSync - Todoist&Wunderlist, GoogleNowAuth - Strava). Getting rid of the app and using the website/finding an alternative liberates my device.

SG- 10y ago

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.

M_Grey 10y ago

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.

Animats 10y ago

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.

nikki-9696 10y ago

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.

hotgoldminer 10y ago

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

danellis 10y ago
Except that's not even remotely true. You can stay in the garden of you want, otherwise you have the rest of... everything.

imagist 10y ago

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.

jxramos 10y ago
I've been wondering how to actually uninstall default installed apps. I'd value the disk space a lot more than the app functionality.
- GFischer 10y ago
  There are several tutorials out there, but it's a pain. I have an AT&T branded LG phone, and it came with lots of crapware. Example of the stuff you have to do: http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-lg-g3/general/guide-how-to-remove-bloatware-att-lg-g3-t2822501 http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-lg-g3/general/guide-how-... Even worse, a "stock" Lenovo K3 Note comes with an unbelievable amount of crap (not surprising to those that followed the Superfish fiasco) - the hardware itself is pretty good and unbeatable at the price point (maybe they subsidize the phone with all that adware?).
- monocasa 10y ago
  In a lot of cases, these bloatware apps are in the RO root partition, and so you wouldn't really gain usable disk space.
- severine 10y ago
  Maybe you'd like Disable Manager [1], it's also on F-Droid [2]. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mayong.appdisablemanager&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mayong.app... [2] https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=disable&fdid=com.nagopy.android.disablemanager2 https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=disable&fdid...

emodendroket 10y ago

> 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?

rdiddly 10y ago
Agreed - a grievous missed pun app-ortunity. Compensatory content: This does seem to be a natural & logical trajectory for this I'm afraid. Or at least for those who don't fetishize technology but rather just want it to do something for them (which is most people, or I guess, about half of people!). As a brand-new smartphone owner you might be downloading & trying different apps all the time, experimenting, searching... but once you've found the "app for that" for every "that" that you want to do, you're pretty much set. You just maybe dutifully download updates. But even there, you're hoping they don't irrevocably change something you like, and in my case on Android I'm ready with an adb backup to roll back to the previous version.
claar 10y ago
They probably did, but their editor (probably wisely) thought the public would miss the pun and end up confused.

twblalock 10y ago

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.

SCdF 10y ago

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.

yoz-y 10y ago
To each their own I guess. For me my telephone is my computer for everything except coding and watching movies. However I do agree that having an app for a website is subpar. However I always prefer an app over a web-app (e.g.: yelp)
- SCdF 10y ago
  So funny you should mention yelp, I just deleted it a week or so ago. I realised I didn't actually use it really much at all, and honestly if I'm out and about (and so am not planning on my computer) I'm perfectly happy to just chance it at a random place than try to over-analyse and pick the optimal meal at the optimal place to eat.
visarga 10y ago
I recently deleted dozens of apps off my Android phone. After years of using the phone as intended, a month ago I started getting full screen ads, some with video and sound. They start whenever they want, even if I am using the launcher or the phone is locked. So I reset the phone to factory defaults and only took back a few apps. I don't really need them.
- Yhippa 10y ago
  The best is when you still get blaring ad sound even though "Total silence" mode is on.

joshmn 10y ago

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

jxramos 10y ago

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.

honkhonkpants 10y ago
I also use the gmail mobile web site instead of the gmail app, because the web site is fine and it gives me more control over battery and network usage than the native application. Same goes for google calendar. I don't want to give anybody any ideas, but the only way to get me to use these specific apps would be to kill off the web versions.
visarga 10y ago
I use youtube.com in Firefox, and it plays sound in background and with the phone locked.
- jxramos 10y ago
  Cool tip, I'm going to have to try that out for the browser and see if Chrome let's me fly or sink. I can't remember if it was the app or the browser that sunk on this usability.

AdrianB1 10y ago

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.

mixmastamyk 10y ago

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.

tomc1985 10y ago

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!

enraged_camel 10y ago
I think notifications are off on iOS by default, and the first time you launch the app, it asks you "[App] wants to send you notifications" and you have to explicitly allow it. Same thing with accessing your contacts/calendar and stuff.
- tomc1985 10y ago
  Well it isn't on Android.
  - tdkl 10y ago
    You can long-press on the notification and hide it though, since 4.3.
    - tomc1985 10y ago
      Still, users should not have to perform this. There is no consent.
  - massysett 10y ago
    A big reason I switched to iOS is that Apple cares about letting me control what runs on my phone and how much apps can nag me and what they can access. Google does not care about this at all and it's reminiscent of the huge risk of downloading anything on a PC. That's exactly what I'm trying to get away from on the phone.

VLM 10y ago

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

Dramatize 10y ago

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

dumbfounder 10y ago

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".

Anasufovic 10y ago
This is a surprisingly common issue I see even among some of my friends in their 20s. Their apple login was always an afterthought.
mnkmnk 10y ago
This also leads to the frustrating circle- Website wants me to install app, OK. But I can't install the app. But website won't show me the content without installing installing the app! Argh!

helthanatos 10y ago

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.

RandomInteger4 10y ago

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.

devgutt 10y ago

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.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

zodPod 10y ago

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!

dwaltrip 10y ago

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.

tluyben2 10y ago

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.

tluyben2 10y ago