14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone application stores have become a rather popular trend lately, yet it seems that the number of mobile users to actually download apps to their handsets is much lower than expected. To be more precise, only 30 percent of users do this, while 70 percent of them have never downloaded software to their devices.
The idea is that an impressive number of customers, namely 70 percent, only use their mobile phone as a means of communication, and leave out or are not aware of the fact that the handset could also be used for navigating the Internet. Yet, given the fact that smartphones have seen growing popularity lately, it would be safe to say that the number of users to access the Web from their mobile devices would change in the near future.
A recently conducted poll on 3000 mobile phone owners from U.S., Japan, Spain and the UK showed some rather interesting info on the handset usage. From the total number of users, it seems that 62 percent do not consider that their handset could prove to be an extension of their computer, which could be used to connect to the Internet. At the same time, only 23 percent of the subjects considered learning to use their mobile phones a task that was not worse than learning to use a computer. 67 percent stated that they would rather consider choosing an application than being provided with one by their carrier.
The number of software portals dedicated to mobile phone users has been continuously increasing lately, and the leader in the area is Apple, which has seen the audience of its App Store go up to around 30 million users. Undoubtedly, given the fact that users can easily find the applications they want through said software portals, it won't be too long before the percentage of those who use their mobile phone to navigate the Web or download applications will rise.