Consumers Say $5 Not Too Much for a Smartphone App Download

A survey of smartphone owners by Compete has found that when Smartphone users were asked the most they've ever spent on a single application, 24 percent said that they have spent anywhere from $10-$50 for a single app. 28 percent have spent between $5-10 on a single app.

It also notes that iPhone owners are not spending more on individual apps, but buying more apps overall. 86% of iPhone owners have paid at most $.99 - $9.99 on a single app, but 83% of these iPhone owners have downloaded at least 6 apps.

The four most commonly downloaded applications, by category, for iPhone users were Games (79%), Entertainment (78%), Weather (57%), and Music (55%).

But, the top three applications used most frequently by those same owners, in order of frequency, were weather-related applications (39%); Facebook (25%) and Games (20%). Specific applications that iPhone owners highlight are Shazam (7%), a music recognition application, and Lose It (5%), a calorie counting application. Both applications were featured in iPhone commercials during the time this survey was fielded, indicating the influence of media on consumers' purchase and usage behavior.

Why Smartphone Users Aren't Downloading More

27 percent of Smartphone owners (but only 2 percent of iPhone owners) indicate that they have not downloaded a single application to their device. When asked for the main reason they have not added any applications to their phones, 41 percent said they don't see a need to add applications, 33 percent don't want to spend the money and 13 percent haven't added any applications because they don't know how.

When asked how they decided which applications to download to their phone, 60 percent of all Smartphone owners said they spend time looking through all the applications to discover them on their own. 30 percent of Smartphone owners look for friends / family recommendations and 30 percent look to see what apps are popular.

Posted to the site on 4th May 2009