For all hype and promise of mobile applications, a new study by the Pew Research Center discovered that the vast majority of mobile phone owners don’t even use the ones they already have and fewer still bother downloading new ones.
As Enterprise Mobile Today reports, this lack of interest in mobile apps figures to change as younger people buy more smartphones and older consumers get a taste of some of the newer applications designed for their needs.
“An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cell phone users, particularly men and young adults,” Kristen Purcell, associate director for research at the Pew Internet Project, said in the report. “Still, it is clear that this is the early stage of adoption when many cell owners do not know what their phone can do. The apps market seems somewhat ahead of a majority of adult cell phone users.”
The survey, which queried 1,917 American adults, found that most are still using their cell phones — smart or otherwise — for the basics like taking pictures, sending text messages and browsing the Internet. Seventy-six percent take pictures with their phones and 72 percent send and receive text messages and only 38 percent use it to access the Internet.
New and more compelling mobile applications are driving the ravenous demand for new smartphones but most cell phone users aren’t even using the apps they already have.
That’s the scoop from a new Pew Research Center study, titled “The Rise of Apps Culture, which found that 11 percent of adult cell phone owners aren’t even sure if they have applications embedded in their mobile devices.
The study found that 82 percent of American adults have a cell phone but only 35 percent of them have applications for playing games, listening to music or browsing the Internet. And of the 35 percent of users who do have applications on their phones, only about 24 percent of them ever use them.
