Why No One Uses Your Mobile App Any More
A few months ago I was really grooving on QuizUp. Now I rarely open it. There was a cool app that turned my photos into comic-style art. Was all over my Instagram feed for a few weeks. Now don’t even remember the name. Wired’s Mat Honan suggested SXSW might not have a breakout app this year because, well, nothing really breaks out for very long any more.
I’m finding this occurring again and again with games, photo and chat apps, which seem to be the most ephemeral of mobile experiences. Games have always peaked, then valleyed. Photos and chat apps tend to swap because they each have at least one consistent fallback – your phone’s camera and SMS/iMessage.
With the iPhone 5s TouchID and automatic app updates I find myself going to the app store far less frequently but when I follow a link to a free app’s download page, convert nearly 100% of the time. Why? Because I no longer need to type in a password. Just keep my thumb on the pad and – boom – new app to try out. Now if Apple could just make it easier to open new apps once installed (since I’ve already left the download page to multitask). Maybe double-click’s app tray could include a downloaded-but-not-yet-opened app in the its stream of recently accessed apps.
But maybe it’s just because we’re being rewired to want “new” over any known quantity. Does the excitement over seeing something for the first time beat any known pleasure? Are we becoming app sluts?
As a consumer it’s really compelling – so many new things to try. As a seed investor it makes picking winners at the earliest stages a real challenge unless there’s at least some evidence of meteoric growth. Why I think we’ll see more of the larger funds track interesting apps and then work hard to win the deal later as opposed to throwing millions pre-traction.
Find me on Twitter @hunterwalk
Photo: KBF Media/Shutterstock
Digital Marketing Expert @TechValens LLC
8 年Need Mobile Apps for your Business??? Ask @TechValens , Check out our latest projects https://www.techvalens.com/portfolio.html
Head of Marketing | Ex-Ola, HSBC | Revenue | Brand Marketing | Content | Performance | Social | Growth
10 年Its quite simple. If your service needs to keep a track of the user's activity and in turn use that to give a notable benefit back--you need an app. Otherwise stick to the web.
Systems administrator, IT consultant, network administrator, technologist, project manager, team leader, and account manager.
10 年From day one on smartphones there have been apps for the moment and apps for the long-run. This was and also is true for PC apps. People like to try stuff. Give users a product with good UI and UX, something they actually need and it will stick. The ease of downloading free+add or free+add-ons apps makes it much easier for users to test, try, dabble, and decide. There is a difference between need and want. Games vs tools. Entertainment vs productivity. Productivity apps, such as Evernote, provide a solid model for the long-term use case. Any single app may fade away, but the app space will evolve, competitors push innovation, and hardware technologies push the envelope, as new products fill the space.
Engineer Manager / Computer Engineer
10 年I prefer a mobile website over an app if it is done right. Usability is my main criteria. Why should I have to download an app that wants to access my contacts to get it?
Associate Realtor in Peru at Jmb International Miami Realtors
10 年Of, course I do Agree that we are ¨Native searchers" it′s like a human chip inserted since we are born. Other way we would probably be extinguished. But if an app, is continuously changing, redefining new concepts, new ideas, new ways to be better, or new ways to engage with our inner hunters or thinkers, maybe also artists, making us somehow to multiply or grow our dendrites, we won't leave it. they already makes us feel something.. if the apps is useful; then it′s great! if not, its already in the past. I can tell, I am a searcher. mad searcher, love apps. But what it most interests me, is the unknown, how i begin to discover, new ways to... "Play, get in touch, do better, how it quickens tasks.. etc" Color also is a clue in developers. I think its imperative in how designers and developers make them. I love to test them!! jajaja... that′s true.. but sometimes I get hooked, "Lets say, Infinity Blade III", great team!! they have done an excellent work....