• by Mark Walsh , March 15, 2011

Game sensations like "Angry Birds" aside, it's become accepted wisdom mobile users go through most apps faster than Kleenex at an allergy sufferers' convention. A study released by mobile analytics firm Localytics in late January found more than a quarter (26%) of smartphone and tablet owners never used a given app more than once. But today the company released new findings showing the same percentage of people become loyal customers, using a new app more than 10 times.

The company says it tracked usage from thousands of Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 apps that use its real-time analytics service. For all new app users between July and September 2010, it counted how many times someone used the same app through early March.

While 26% tried an app once and moved on, an equal share turn into the most loyal users -- engaging with the app at least 10 times and as many as hundreds of times during the study period.

In between, the research indicated the share of customers lost with each additional usage drops off quickly, with half of customers using an app four or five times. And 74% use an app at least twice. Instead of focusing only on downloads, Localytics advises developers and publishers to look to attract and retain the quarter of users who tend to become the heavy, repeat users.

So what types of apps tend to draw loyal users? And what kind of users are more likely to be avid app users? The company said it's still sifting through the data to answer those kinds of questions. It wouldn't be surprising if a small proportion of popular games or apps account for most of the repeat usage.

But even if mobile users aren't hooked on a new app, smartphone users are more likely than feature phone owners to check things like email and Facebook often throughout the day, according to separate data released Tuesday by interactive marketing firm ExactTarget.

So 45% of smartphone users check email constantly, compared to 28% of regular phone users, while the split is 23% to 12% on checking Facebook frequently. The gap on checking Twitter constantly isn't as wide -- 5% on smartphones versus 2% on regular phones. Comparing mobile phones overall to PCs, the study found 24% of email users check their accounts constantly on home computers, 16% do so on work computers, and 11% on mobile devices. Only 2% are typically checking these sources often on tablets.

That smartphone users are more avid in tracking various communication channels isn't surprising -- since they're typically overrepresented in various types of mobile data usage than regular phone users. And it makes sense people aren't checking sources like email or Facebook as frequently on the iPad or other tablets as on mobile phones, since tablets are not carried everywhere, as phones are.