How far we've come. We used to think of apps as crucial bits of our mobile make-up, as vital add-ons for adding much-needed functions to our multi-talented blowers. Remember those 'how many apps have you downloaded?' surveys?
These days, though, it seems app downloads are as much impulses spurred on by boredom or curiosity than anything else. A new study has revealed more than a quarter of all app downloads are opened once and once only, and the percentage is rising all the time.
According to Localytics, some 26% of all iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 apps downloaded in 2010 were never opened a second time. Interestingly, though, as the year went on the figure rose, from around 22% for the first three months of the year to 28% in the last quarter.
Of course, given that more than half of the 500,000-plus apps available over the platforms concerned cost nothing to begin with, it's hardly surprising that so many people feel quite happy to download on a whim, sample the app in question and then ditch it if it doesn't meet expectations.
But the fact that the try-once figure is rising also suggests that an increasing number of the new apps appearing on the scene are little more than novelty items filling the ever-smaller gaps remaining in the app landscape.
Or to put it another way, our standards are getting higher because of all the good apps already out there.
