How many users only download free apps?
There’s a chap I know thatdo a lot of work with called Barnes. He’s a splendid chap, friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and although he’s a big, big Microsoft fan, he owns an iPhone 3GS.
I’ve known the guy for a few months and we talk ‘mobile’ regularly. The subject of mobile applications has come up regularly and Barnes, a true iPhone fan, has no shortage of recommendations.
Seeing me getting annoyed with the mindless M4 traffic one day, Barnes suggested I check out the UK Highways Agency’s traffic app (iTunes link). I downloaded it right-away. It’s excellent — it tells me just how screwed the traffic is on my choice of roads.
The application was free — but then again, if it was chargeable, provided I could be persuaded it offered some kind of value for £0.59, I’d have downloaded without a further thought.
It turns out that Barnes isn’t quite the true iPhone fan I thought he was.
You see, he’s never actually purchased an application.
He can’t quite bring himself to do so. I was mildly appalled to find this out, especially given the fact he’s most definitely IT-literate and that he knows how to use his iPhone.
“I just haven’t seen anything worth paying for,” he explains.
“How about the National Rail train application?” I ask, trying to think of a paid-for application that is, for many iPhone commuters, utterly critical.
“I drive to work,” he replies.
I was stumped, but decided to keep on going.
“You haven’t seen anything you’d like to buy?” I queried.
“No… just… no nothing really appeals.”
Fair enough.
I, of course, will buy a mobile application without a moment’s thought because I work in the industry, because I quantify the spend as research first, value second.
It’s always interesting looking at the marketplace from the point of view of other people, especially normobs or “normal mobile users”. I wouldn’t put Barnes in that category though — he’s certainly a super-user. Indeed, he can put a server together using just his eyebrows and some well positioned puffs of air, he’s that technically gifted.
He just doesn’t value paid-for applications.
Knowing Barnes is a keen Formula 1 racing fan, I grasped at a final straw.
“What about the Formula 1 app?” (iTunes link)
Barnes thought for a moment.
“You can get it all free on the BBC website.”
The sad reality is he’s right.
What will it take to convert Barnes to a paid-for application fan? An act of God? Or a £15 iTunes voucher to get him hooked on the paid-for-buzz? And why should it matter that he just likes free ones? Barnes doesn’t feel left out. He is entirely confident that he is missing nothing. What’s more, I tried the odd bit of gentle pressure and he wasn’t having it.
When I sit and think about it, I have to conclude that the chap is entirely right. I couldn’t think of any absolutely 100% *must have* applications that, using Barnes’ reckoning, don’t offer anything more than easy convenience. For instance, I tried to argue that the official Formula 1 app would be quicker for accessing race timings — but, as Barnes points out, he can (and does) use the iPhone’s swish browser to get the information from BBC sport. Which — through his license fee — he’s already paid for.
So fair enough.
Just how many uniques are purchasing iPhone applications? I wonder. I haven’t seen a definitive stat from Apple and I doubt I ever will (do let me know if you’ve come across some). Some estimates I’ve read around the web reckon 95% of iTunes app downloads are free.
I do wonder.
How many other iPhone users out there only use free apps?
What’s your perspective?
Update: A quick note from Stuart over at Mobile Entertainment pointed out this post: 50% of smartphone users downloaded 0 apps last month.
