There are hundreds of thousands of Mobile apps in the market right now. Both the iOS Appstore and the Google Play store hold apps from almost all developers out there. These apps range from Angry Birds, that are downloaded in millions to some obscure app with possibly zero downloads. Nevertheless, the apps are present.
However, the bigger question is, how many mobile apps do you want to use at a particular time. How many apps can one use comfortably? Is there a particular ceiling to the number of apps after which one simply ignores the rest of the apps?
Nielsen seems to be bothered by the same questions as well. Looking at the app usage of around 5000 individuals in US in Q4 of 2013, they gathered data answering some of these questions. Several interesting results can be obtained from these data points.
The most noticeable in my opinion is the fact that the number of apps used per month has not increased much from the last year (26.8 from 26.5). In 2011, this figure was 23.2. This might mean that we are reaching the plateau and we might be reaching the maximum apps a person can use on an average without being overwhelmed by the apps themselves.
The maximum number of apps that are used per month is by the age group 25-34 (29.5). I suppose this is partly due to the use of productivity apps that are predominately used by this group. Also, this group is the one who was hit squarely by the boom of the app industry. The younger generation got it too young while the older generation is still coming from the old feature phone era. This generation should show the biggest impact and curiosity towards apps.
The amount of time spent per month on these apps however is led by the youth. The 18-24 group spends around 37 hours per month followed by 25-34 group at 35 hours.
The 55+ group lags behind in both the time spent (22 hours) and apps used (22). This is expected as they were shoved in the new order and adopting new technology is always a little difficult. In fact, all things considered, these numbers are quite high.
Another important result derived from this data is that people spend 65% more time on the apps than they did two years back. This shows how much dependent we are getting on our apps. And this is discounting apps like Google Now that are always working in the background. Entertainment category seems to be the biggest gainer in terms of time spent.
While this data is for US only, I do not think the values will be much changed, especially in the lower age segment. It is possible that in the 45+ range, we might see lower figures but other than that I think the extrapolation should fit the Indian crowd perfectly.
What is your opinion? How many apps do you have installed and how many do you actually use?
[…] you ever thought how many Mobile Apps you use in a month? If you have not given a thought – here is the answer. Approximately 30 according to the […]