Wanna get rich? Don't build an app

ComScore’s report shows that mobile app usage is dominated by a small group of large tech brands. Most smartphone users do not download new apps each month, even though apps account for most mobile device time.

The article argues that app stores may be part of the problem because the shopping experience is poor and tiring. It also says that a brief burst of downloads can matter, but long-term profit depends on becoming one of a user’s most used apps.

Reading notes

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• Six major brands built nine of the top 10 mobile apps.
• Those same brands account for 16 of the top 25 apps and 24 of the top 50.
• 65.5 percent of smartphone users download zero new apps each month.
• Seven percent of users account for half of monthly app downloads.
• Seven of every eight minutes on mobile devices is spent in an app.
• App stores are described as a poor shopping experience.
• Verizon is rumored to be working with operators on a new kind of Android app store.
• The article says new apps may face fatigue after the novelty of first smartphones fades.
• Angry Birds is given as an example of a download hit that does not appear among the most used apps.
• 42 percent of all app time on smartphones occurs in a user’s single most used app.
• Nearly three out of four minutes of app usage occurs in one of a user’s top four apps.
• The main challenge is getting into that small group of most used apps.