Data Monday: Mobile App Usage

by November 14, 2011

As the number of native mobile applications keeps growing, it's worth looking at how they get used. To that end, here's a few stats about people downloading apps and what what they do with them afterward.

  • Adult mobile users who have downloaded an app to their phone nearly doubled in the past two years – rising from 22% in September 2009 to 38% in August 2011. (source)
  • The average iOS device owner will download 83 apps in 2011 vs. 51 in 2010, a 61% increase year over year. (source)
  • The average smartphone user in the adds just 2.5 new apps per month. (source)
  • In May 2010, only about two-thirds (68%) of adults who had apps on their phones reported actually using them. (source)
  • In March 2011, 26% of all apps downloaded were opened only once and then never used again. 26% were used 11 times or more. Of the remaining 48% of apps: 13% are opened only twice, 9% are opened only three times, all the way to 2% that are opened 10 times and never again. (source)
  • 38% 
iOS & Android users stick with an app after one month. 14% 
iOS & Android users stick with an app after six months. After 12 months, only 4% are left. (source)
  • Roughly half (51%) of mobile owners use a handful of apps at least once a week, while 17% report using no apps on a regular basis. Almost a third (31%) could be called app “power users” in that they use 6 or more. (source)
  • The top 10 Android apps account for 43% of all the time spent by Android consumers on mobile apps. The top 50 apps account for 61% of all time spent. With 250,000+ Android apps available at the time of this writing, that means the remaining 249,950+ apps have to compete for the remaining 39 percent of the pie. (source)