1 in 4 U.S. Adults Use Mobile Phone Apps
A new study shows more Americans than ever are using apps on their phones, a statistic that highlights the convergence between mobile devices and traditional computing.
According to the study, conducted by the Pew Research Center, the vast majority of those app users downloaded their apps , an indication that Internet use is gaining on voice conversation as the primary use of a cell phone.
The study looked at 2,252 adults, of whom 1,917 had cell phones. Of those 1,917 people, 35 percent had some form of additional software on their phone.
Curiously, only 24 percent of those polled actually used their apps, while 11 percent didn't know whether or not their phone had any apps.
“An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cell phone users, particularly men and young adults,” said Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research at the Pew Internet Project. “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.”
Demographically, the app users contacted by the study tended to be young, male, college educated and have incomes above $75,000. But despite that relatively wealthy average wage, only 47 percent of respondents said they paid for an app.
Areas where upper-class white males were not the dominant user group included social networking and gaming apps , which are more likely to be used by women, and the YouTube and Pandora music apps, which African-Americans and Latinos were more likely to use than Caucasians.
The most common apps downloaded by people contacted in the study were games, with news, navigation and social networking software also proving popular.
