Cell phones applications: the apps culture rises slowly says Pew survey

The most recent Pew Internet & American Life Project survey (see below) asked a national sample of 1,917 cell phone-using adults if they use apps and how they use them. Broadly, the results indicate that while applications are popular among a segment of the adult cell phone-using population, a notable number of cell owners are not yet part of the emerging applications culture.

As most of the e-democracy and e-government trends put an emphasis on the potential of mobile applications to engage citizens and provide them with a new range of services, these results show the issue under a different perspective. There is no denying mobile apps have a great potential, but are people using these apps?

Highlights of the survey:

- 35% of adults have cell phones with apps, but only two-thirds of those who have apps actually use them.
- Apps users are younger, more educated and more affluent than other cell phone users.
- App use still ranks relatively low when compared with other uses of cell phones.
- 29% of adult cell-phone users have downloaded an app to their phone.

PIP_Nielsen Apps Report