Commentary
Apps Are Everywhere
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 5, 2009
In only nine months, reports Internet Retailer, Apple's App Store has proven itself a hot commodity. It features more than 35,000 applications available to consumers in 77 countries, enabling developers, including retailers, to reach tens of millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users.
According to the Compete quarterly Smartphone Intelligence report, 24% of Smartphone users have spent anywhere from $10-$50 for a single application, while 28% have spent between $5-10 on a single app. iPhone owners are not spending more on individual apps, but 83% of these iPhone owners have downloaded at least six.
Type of Applications Downloaded To Smartphone (Multiple Responses) | |||||
Applications Downloaded | Type of Smartphone Owner (% of Owner Group) | ||||
| All Owners | iPhone | RIM | Palm | Motorola |
Top Five | |||||
Games | 37% | 79% | 26% | 44% | 33% |
Music | 28% | 55% | 12% | 20% | 27% |
Entertainment | 26% | 78% | 19% | 16% | 24% |
Weather | 24% | 57% | 18% | 13% | 24% |
Navigation | 21% | 33% | 22% | 9% | 27% |
All Other | |||||
Books | 8% | 23% | 3% | 11% | 5% |
Business | 13% | 25% | 11% | 5% | 16% |
Education | 9% | 23% | 6% | 9% | 12% |
Finance | 11% | 32% | 11% | 5% | 17% |
Healthcare and Fitness | 8% | 19% | 3% | 13% | 8% |
Lifestyle | 8% | 29% | 3% | 2% | 10% |
News | 18% | 43% | 16% | 20% | 18% |
Photography | 9% | 20% | 5% | 5% | 10% |
Productivity | 11% | 27% | 6% | 15% | 14% |
Reference | 8% | 28% | 4% | 5% | 11% |
Social Networking | 16% | 35% | 21% | 9% | 11% |
Sports | 11% | 23% | 13% | 7% | 10% |
Travel | 12% | 29% | 11% | 2% | 10% |
Utilities | 16% | 42% | 10% | 15% | 18% |
Other | 4% | 2% | 4% | 5% | 4% |
Source: Compete Smartphone Intelligence Report, April 2009 | |||||
Number Of Applications Downloaded To Smartphone (Applications Not Orginially Part Of The Overall Settings) | |||||||||
Number of Apps Downloaded | Type of Smartphone Owner (% of Owner Group) | ||||||||
| All Owners | iPhone | RIM | Palm | Motorola | ||||
0 | 27% | 2% | 32% | 23% | 36% | ||||
1-5 | 44% | 15% | 46% | 50% | 37% | ||||
6-10 | 14% | 22% | 15% | 18% | 13% | ||||
11-15 | 5% | 15% | 4% | 5% | 4% | ||||
16-20 | 4% | 18% | 1% | 2% | 4% | ||||
21-30 | 2% | 10% | 0% | 2% | 0% | ||||
31+ | 4% | 17% | 1% | 0% | 7% | ||||
Source: Compete Smartphone Intelligence Report, April 2009 | |||||||||
27%of Smartphone owners (but only 2% of iPhone owners) indicate that they have not downloaded a single application to their device. Considering the main reason, 41% said they don't see a need, 33% don't want to spend the money, and 13% don't know how.
Main Reason For Not Adding Any Applications To Smartphone | |||||
Reason For Not Adding Any Apps | Type of Smartphone Owner (% of Owner Group) | ||||
| All Owners | iPhone | RIM | Palm | Motorola |
Don't have the software | 4% | 0% | 3% | 0% | 7% |
Don't know how | 13% | 100% | 20% | 0% | 3% |
Don't see a need | 41% | 0% | 34% | 77% | 33% |
Don't want to spend the money | 33% | 0% | 28% | 23% | 57% |
Other | 8% | 0% | 16% | 0% | 0% |
Source: Compete Smartphone Intelligence Report, April 2009 | |||||
60% of all Smartphone owners said they spend time looking through all the applications to discover which to download to their phone. 30% of Smartphone owners look for friends / family recommendations and 30% look to see what apps are popular.
Most Spent On A Single Application For Smartphone | |||||
Most Money Spent | Type of Smartphone Owner | ||||
| All Owners | iPhone | RIM | Palm | Motorola |
$.99 - $1.99 | 21% | 29% | 26% | 5% | 14% |
$2.00 - $4.99 | 27% | 32% | 29% | 14% | 27% |
$5.00 - $9.99 | 28% | 25% | 23% | 36% | 22% |
$10.00 - $19.99 | 14% | 10% | 14% | 18% | 16% |
$20.00 - $49.99 | 5% | 3% | 4% | 23% | 5% |
$50.00 + | 5% | 1% | 4% | 5% | 16% |
Source: Compete Smartphone Intelligence Report, April 2009 | |||||
Additional aspects of Smartphone and iPhone preferences addressed in the report include:
- Use of device when travelling
- Smartphone ownership and mobile banking
- Features using most
- Features lacking
- Popularity of location-based services
Concurrently, a research study on Smartphone usage patterns from Universal McCann found that more than one-third of high use smartphone users respond to mobile advertisements, and:
- 53% of Smartphone users click on ads
- 35% requesti more information or a coupon
- 24% make a purchases via their handsets
For additional information, please view the Compete release here, or acquire more detail here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Very interesting stats, I wonder why Motorolla smart phone owners tend to be more cost conscious than others?