Games and Music top application survey results

Published by Ewan Spence at 10:31 UTC, June 2nd 2010

American pollsters Nielsen have released details on a survey of mobile users and their attitudes to mobile applications. Being a US company, the 4,200 people surveyed provide a good cross section of which genres are popular, and the huge le-up that built in applications receive. Any developer looking for a new project should be taking notes.

While Apple may be best known for mobile apps, BlackBerry, Android and other devices also have a huge range of apps available in their stores, as well as in those operated by mobile service providers. With smartphones expected to overtake feature phones in the U.S. by 2011, the popularity of mobile apps will only grow.

Lots of interesting numbers here, such as the average number of apps on a smartphone is 22,although the iPhone has an average of 37 and the Blackberry just 10. That says a lot about where the focus of each device is.

There should be no surprise that games are the most popular application, but perhaps reflecting on a focus for all-in-one devices, music applications are the second most popular.I love the fact that the Weather Channel up seems to be very high up in the charts – which you would expect for a built in application but nice to have some evidence to back up the assumption of the pwoer of incumbency in the firmware.

More details at Nielsen Wire.


 

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News Discussion

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Hmmm. I'd exercise some caution here. Being American the survey ignores Symbian (somewhat legitimately given the low market presence of Symbian in the US). The point is, is what American consumers want and like duplicated outside the US (i.e. for the remaining 92% of the world mobile market)? Outside the US not only is the chance that likes and dislikes in apps are different, but the platforms that are important will be different, with Symbian taking a very much larger share (e.g. Symbian smartphone market share is over 60% in Europe, and over 80% in Asia-Pacific).

It would be much more interesting to see a region-by-region survey across the world, and one that considers Symbian. As a prospective app developer I would find this much more useful than just hearing what 8% of the world market likes - American tastes are often not reflected elsewhere.

Also - J2ME (java mobile) is much more important outside the US, and should not be ignored by developers. It is a much more capable and less fragmented system these days than it's old reputation suggests.
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I would like to see some continued usage stats. I have an iPhone and after I equipped myself with about 5 or 6 essentials, most of the apps I sunsequently download are deleted within 10 minutes. Such is the amount of dross and rubbish on the App Store. The comments sections are full of people who are angry and annoyed that they have paid for crap.

For example, there is a mirror application which does nothing more than place an image of a frame around a blank screen - the mirror is the natural reflection of the screen surface - exactly the same as having the screen off. And this is near the top of the downloaded list (#2)! I have no idea how people are stupid enough to fall for this.

Hands Heater is another! Makes the screen glow orange in the pattern of a toaster element. Mr Condom, iSendFarts.... need I go on? There is so much movement of apps that are just a waste of space.
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