Study Says Mobile Apps Have Short Lives

A study by Flurry (blog.flurry.com), a mobile analytics company, showed that mobile applications (such as the ones downloaded from iTunes to an iPhone) do not have a very long life. This study was conducted using data from over 200 million user sessions tracked each month across Apple (including iPod Touch), Google Android, Blackberry, JavaME platforms.

The study pointed out that only 67% of the applications are used 30 days after downloading. After 60 days the figures get more grim--only 32% of the apps make it that far. Within 90 days of downloading the application, there is a 25% chance that it will be used on average.

News, productivity, medical and reference applications performed the best. Whereas lifestyle, books, entertainment related mobile applications were the worst performers.

In an article from the Silicon Alley Insider (businessinsider.com), Dan Frommer pointed out that the data may be flawed since we do not know exactly which applications Flurry is tracking.