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Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

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Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#31

Post by marssaxman »

rhizome31 wrote: post #9
marssaxman wrote: post #2

I don't download apps, and I make a point of never entering google account credentials into an Android phone. I don't trust Google, and I don't trust app developers; the whole ecosystem seems designed more to exploit than to serve the end-user. So I just use my phone for SMS, and for killing time browsing the web while I wait for a bus or whatever.

I used to do the same until I broke my smartphone and found that I wasn't missing it at all. Now I use a clamshell phone someone gave me. It's very lightweight, compact, robust and it can last about ten days without being recharged. Sometimes, having an internet-connected device with me would be nice, but I don't find this occasional need worth the hassle of maintaining a smartphone.

I still have fond feelings for my Motorola V195, which I accidentally left plugged in to charge at the San Francisco airport a decade or so back.

I'm occasionally tempted to try building my own device, with a QWERTY keyboard, 320x240 monochrome LCD, and hardcoded apps for SMS and email. It would be big and clunky but it would be kind of nice to have a gadget that did exactly what I wanted.

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#33

Post by moe »

on_and_off wrote: post #19
abruzzi wrote: post #3

This doesn't surprise me at all. For most people (myself included) an iPhone or Android is not a general purpose computer, but a communicator. The vast majority of my communicating happens in email, with the web browser a distant second. Apple's email program in iOS accounts for 70% of my usage, web browser 20% and everything else falls in that last 10%. Other people I know have very different breakdowns, but wether…

for me, my smartphone is a general purpose device : -Access to Pocket articles while commuting -Music, Podcast -Social networks -a little bit of instant messaging / voice -mails -maps It is also a communicator device, but only in the sense that for some silly reason I can't place calls with the 2000$ box on my desk, but only with the 800$ one in my pocket. None of the apps I have are perfect, especially now that we a…

I can't place calls with the 2000$ box on my desk

Of course you can. Get a Softphone[1], a SIP account[2], and you're good to go.

[1] e.g. https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/telephone/id406825478?mt=12

[2] Here's a good list (calls to USA landline & mobile are free on most of them): http://www.mobilevoip.com/supported_brands

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#35

Post by marssaxman »

rogerbinns wrote: post #29
marssaxman wrote: post #2

I don't download apps, and I make a point of never entering google account credentials into an Android phone. I don't trust Google, and I don't trust app developers; the whole ecosystem seems designed more to exploit than to serve the end-user. So I just use my phone for SMS, and for killing time browsing the web while I wait for a bus or whatever.

What makes you think this anonymises you? Even if you have turned off everything on the phone (eg location services), the sheer quantity of tracking on web pages will quickly carve you out an identity. (Note that they don't necessarily need to have your name, but you will exist in many databases along with everything you have done.) The same applies if you have installed apps. Doing something like frequent factory re…

I don't believe that it anonymizes me, for certain, though I hope it might help. I'm certainly not going to make their job any easier than I have to.

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#36

Post by soperj »

moe wrote: post #33
on_and_off wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me, my smartphone is a general purpose device : -Access to Pocket articles while commuting -Music, Podcast -Social networks -a little bit of instant messaging / voice -mails -maps It is also a communicator device, but only in the sense that for some silly reason I can't place calls with the 2000$ box on my desk, but only with the 800$ one in my pocket. None of the apps I have are perfect, especially now that we a…

I can't place calls with the 2000$ box on my desk Of course you can. Get a Softphone[1], a SIP account[2], and you're good to go. [1] e.g. https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/telephone/id406825478?mt=12 [2] Here's a good list (calls to USA landline & mobile are free on most of them): http://www.mobilevoip.com/supported_brands

Or just use the google talk feature that's part of gmail, and phone out to anywhere in the US and Canada for free.

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#37

Post by venomsnake »

We don't have innovation in apps, so not surprising. I suppose it is a perfect storm of walled gardens, locked devices, everything social and strange monetization.

People are not building apps, but social graphs they could sell. Or addictions that they can milk. If the software happens to do something useful is a nice side effects.

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#38

Post by rifung »

pmelendez wrote: post #12

Interesting thing is for most people it seems to be important to have available a big selection of apps. That has been for years the excuse of why windows phones are not more popular.

I think it has less to do with having a large selection and more to do with having the apps you want. I dont care if the app store has 1 trillion apps; I do care if I can't use Gmail and Google Voice.

Also the internet doesn't seem to like IE as much as the WebKit browsers, or at least that was the case before I gave up on WP8. And then there's the lack of a notification pane..

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#39

Post by apocolyps6 »

I personally would say I download a fair number of apps. Maybe less than average because I don't have many games on my Android, nor do I use Intagram/Snapchat/etc. ~120 apps, not counting uninstalled ones.

Thing is, the way I download stuff is I enter the play store and browse and download until I am done. This happens maybe twice a year. Maybe less frequently. The only other use case is when I feel the need for something (such as downloading a Flashlight app in the dark) or when I find out about the existence of a mobile version of something I already use.

If I were to download even 1 app per month, that would mean I'd be interested in casually browsing the Play store or that I am often trying new software such that some percent of it becomes important enough to me that I download the mobile app.

I'm not convinced that even 35% of people exhibit these behaviors.

Re: Most of Us Don’t Download Any Smartphone Apps at All

#40

Post by Dylan16807 »

adventured wrote: post #25
gruntled wrote: post #5

Misleading headline: most people don't install an app every month, but what about the apps they already have on their phone? Edit: it's misleading because the article actually says 65% of smartphone users download zero apps in an average month. That doesn't mean most people never download apps. Just not every month.

It's not particularly misleading, it re-emphasizes a very strong - and well understood - point: the majority of smartphone users do not download very many apps. The better criticism of this article, is that it's already well known that most smartphone users 1) don't download many apps and 2) don't use very many apps day to day. Why is that? It's because most apps are not useful or valuable. If they were, people would…

It mislead me greatly. The headline is a very surprising claim that they're not participating in the app system at all, ignorant of its benefits. But actually they're already satisfied with the apps they have, and use some of them a lot.
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