I just finished reading a report by Pew Internet Project that leaves me no doubt about one of the main reasons behind Nokia slow and painful death by the young stallions, Apple and Google. The report shows just how rapidly consumers are embracing applications on their mobile devices. The Apps is the thing Nokia totally missed. So, I doubt Pamela’s tits and ass, who was recently hired by Nokia to promote their new smartphones, will save the company.
Of the 82% of U.S. adults who are now active cellphone users, 43% now have apps on their phones, and more than two-thirds of them use those apps regularly. In other words, 24% of the U.S. adult population actively uses apps, the study estimates.
Of the 82% Americans using mobile devices, nearly one-third of them have downloaded apps, and 13% said they have paid for one or more of those apps. More than half of those who said they had downloaded an app claimed they had done so within the last 30 days, and one-third had in the last week.
Unsurprisingly, mobile app users tended to be younger, male, more educated and more affluent compared to the rest of the population. App users had an average of 18 apps on their devices and a mean of 10, indicating that there were a number of users with a disproportionate number of apps on their phones. This was especially the case with young adults, the study found.
Games make up by far the most popular genre of apps, both in terms of number of downloads and ratio of people who have downloaded them. 60% of those who said they had downloaded an app in the last 30 days said they had also played a gaming app during that period, followed by news/weather (52%), maps/navigation (51%) and social networking (47%). Shopping was much further down the list at 24%.
The study also noted varying app behaviors between genders: Games and social networking were more popular with women (63% vs. 58% and 53% vs. 42%, respectively), while productivity (29% vs. 21%) and banking/finance apps (32% vs. 25%) were more popular with men.
Of those who have downloaded apps, nearly 2 in 3 said they use their apps daily, and 1 in 4 use their apps for more than 30 minutes per day. Most (71%) use their apps alone, while roughly half use them while waiting for someone or something, or while at work. Another 36% use their apps while commuting (which happens to be when I use apps most heavily).
Consumers value the ability to organize their apps for easy accessibility, the study revealed, noting that 59% of app users had rearranged their apps so that the most frequently used were more accessible. 56% said they delete the apps they don’t use, most within two weeks of downloading them.
These statistics are very interesting. I believe what they reveal is only the beginning of a greater cultural shift. As iPads and smartphones continue to become more deeply ingrained in our daily lives, they are reshaping the ways in which consumers want and expect to interact with digital content. Here are more predictions for the future of content creation and consumption.
Did you read this Nokia? Pamela will not be able to pull you out of this.
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