Doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of middle ground here:
Of smartphone owners, 68% open only five or fewer apps at least once a week, finds a survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Seventeen percent don't use any apps. About 42% of all U.S. adults have phones with apps, Pew estimates.
"The novelty wears off," says Pew researcher Kristen Purcell.
But the ones with staying power really do stick. Android phone users spend about 90 minutes a day on their phone, about two-thirds of that on apps, says Monica Bannan of media research firm Nielsen. "We see a very familiar behavior with (iPhone users)."
An app that's retained by 30% of downloaders is considered "sticky," says Anindya Datta, founder of Mobilewalla, an app analytic firm.
"We are constantly deleting them. That's why the number of downloads is a very poor measure of how popular an app is," he says, estimating 80% to 90% of apps are eventually deleted.
Seems that the key to having a "sticky" app is usefulness.
On the WAMK World HQ Hotline Smartphone, I have a few apps I use on a daily/regular basis: One that tracks my investments, Worldmate Travel, Pandora, an app that helps me find cheap gas (I use that one more when I travel), Twitter, eBay, and Dropbox. I notice that the apps I have listed here have a common thread-they are all websites that I use while sitting at my desk (with the exception of the gas station finder). A good app to me appears to be one that keeps me connected.
