[dredmorbius]

The question is not whether or not HN users' decision processes aare representative, but whether or not the end results are.

App adoption and use, overall, is low.

Consumers Spend 85% Of Time On Smartphones In Apps, But Only 5 Apps See Heavy Use https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/22/consumers-spend-85-of-time...

App Download and Usage Statistics (2018)

The total number of mobile app downloads in 2017 – 197 billion (a forecast)

That's an average of about 50/user, with an 80%+ abandonment rate, and a median all but certainly far lower.

How many Android apps are there now? Well, by June of 2017 it reached 3 million Android app mark! The current rate of its growth is more than 1,300 apps a day.

This is not a good thing.

..despite the sea of choice for mobile apps available for both iOS and Android, in real life people tend to use on a daily basis only a few. Here is how much exactly – 10 apps a day on average or 30 apps on monthly basis.

http://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-statistics/

77 percent of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing

https://www.androidauthority.com/77-percent-users-dont-use-a...

How Many Apps Do Smartphone Owners Use? Most apps are not even retained for a full day

A Localytics survey, conducted by Research Now in October 2015, reports that 49% of US smartphone app users use six to 10 smartphone apps each week.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/How-Many-Apps-Do-Smartphon...

New data shows losing 80% of mobile users is normal, and why the best apps do better

https://andrewchen.co/new-data-shows-why-losing-80-of-your-m...

[skilled]

The more time I spend working with studies and research data, the more I'm starting to realize that a lot of it [numbers] is complete and utter nonsense.

197 billion app downloads? You don't have to be a researcher to know that the number is a "little" far-fetched. And maybe I'm delusional to the fact that might be possible. After all, I have only ever used Android and only with the default apps it comes packaged with. Other than the exception for WhatsApp and Messenger.

But honestly, in the markets that I work with, I see such blown up statistics that it makes me throw up on the inside. E.g. In 2018, 20% of all web searches are done using voice (assistant, Siri, smart speakers, etc.), and by 2020 that number is "going to be 50%".

Holy macaroni... I can already picture the dystopian reality where people walk around airports all talking to their phones just to look something up.

All that aside, mobile apps suck! I prefer a well-designed mobile website over an app at any time of the day.

[coldtea]

>197 billion app downloads? You don't have to be a researcher to know that the number is a "little" far-fetched.

Is it? I'm a highly technical user, CS degree and all, 20 years experience, and I still downloaded around 20-25 apps last year. Of those, I kept like 4-5 on the phone, but the downloads are still there.

~3 billion * 20 = 60 billion app downloads already. And younger people are not as mission driven ("need to find an app for a specific task") and picky as me. Add to that casual apps and games, where people can download a new one every week (I rarely play games).

>But honestly, in the markets that I work with, I see such blown up statistics that it makes me throw up on the inside. E.g. In 2018, 20% of all web searches are done using voice (assistant, Siri, smart speakers, etc.), and by 2020 that number is "going to be 50%".

Yeah, that sounds like just BS PR from from SEO article pushing for some voice related product or service. Absolutely there are those too.

[icebraining]

Well, I have over 40 non-Google apps, and I had to download them all again when I got a new phone last year (which I rarely do, but many switch every couple of years). And I probably downloaded and uninstalled 8 or 10 more - when I want do do something new, I often try a bunch of apps before settling on one. Also, some apps follow the model of using a "virtual app" as a key to unlock paid features, so that's two downloads for a single app.

[manigandham]

Every update to an app also counts as a new download.