14 DAY TRIAL // One of the latest trends on the mobile phone market is the availability of application stores from where users can download a wide range of software solutions for their devices. At the same time, the applications developed for smartphones have become increasingly popular all around the world, and some of the most recent reports show that the number of downloaded apps for such handsets has increased dramatically.
However, a recent report from Strategy Analytics shows that the number of applications that smartphone owners are using regularly does not rise over six. According to the research firm's Wireless Smartphone Strategies insight, users are indeed downloading a wide range of applications, yet they only use around six of them on a regular basis.
Strategy Analytics surveyed smartphone users in the UK and the US, and showed that users in both countries are installing the same number of applications on their devices. At the same time, the research firm also says that users of an Apple device are those who download and install the largest number of applications both in the UK and in the US.
While iPhone owners install more apps than smartphone owners, it seems that they do not use them on a regular basis more than others. The survey also shows that Android users have already remover a great deal of the applications they installed on their devices (about one third), while BlackBerry users tend to keep all of the apps they download.
Christopher Dodge, analyst in the Strategy Analytics User Experience Practice, commented on the findings of the survey: “Only 57% of all Smartphone applications on a device are being used regularly.” Paul Brown, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics added, “Application developers need to ensure that their application is useful, usable and compelling in order to ensure it will be used regularly and not just downloaded, used a couple of times, and then discarded.”