There may be an app for everything, but not everyone is using them.
Apple’s App Store is approaching 25 billion downloads, but studies show few of those apps will be used consistently.
A survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows 68 percent of smartphone owners only open five or fewer apps per week, a low number considering the amount of apps available.
Alex Cook, the University’s IT Coordinator for Continuing Education, isn’t surprised by this data.
“The concept of a phone hasn’t changed with the technology,” Cook said in an e-mail. “People over a certain age have a pretty set idea of what a phone is and — unless they are tech savvy — aren’t going to gravitate toward apps.”
This finding rings true on campus as well. Daisy Miller, public relations sophomore, said she probably only uses three apps a week on her Android phone. She said she hasn’t paid for an app.
Angela Leblanc, kinesiology sophomore, also said she uses around three apps a week.
“I prefer the phone for calling and texting,” Leblanc said.
Facebook is a favorite app of Leblanc and sports administration sophomore Mitchel Roussel.
Another Pew Research study shows that only 16 percent of U.S. adults have ever paid for an app, and of those, half spent $5 or less.
Though Leblanc and Miller didn’t pay for apps, Roussel did when he bought the LSU Moodle app.
William Foster Murphy, general business sophomore, and Grant Hudson, anthropology freshman, have also bought apps.
“I actually pay for most of mine,” Murphy said.
Hudson said he didn’t mind paying for apps.
In addition to U.S. adults not paying for phone applications, Anindya Datta, founder of app analytic firm Mobilewalla, told USA Today that 80 to 90 percent of apps are deleted from devices.
“The number of downloads is a very poor measure of how popular an app is,” Datta said.
When asked what makes her keep an app on her phone, Leblanc said it needs to be useful.
“It has to be efficient and working,” Leblanc noted. “If I need to use the app more than once every three weeks, I’ll keep it.”
Roussel agreed, saying the app “just has to be interesting.”
 
—-
Contact Taylor Balkom at [email protected].