Report: smartphone owners willing to pay for apps

By Fahmida Y. Rashid September 14, 2010

In a slight departure from conventional wisdom (and backed up by countless surveys and studies) that people don’t want to pay for content on the Web, a new research report from Nielsen claims mobile phone owners are willing to pay for apps.

Nielsen announced these findings in a “State of Mobile Apps” report at San Francisco’s AppNation conference. In a survey of 4,000 mobile phone subscribers in August, 59 percent of smartphone users and 9 percent of regular “feature” phones users reported downloading an app within the previous 30 days. Of those surveyed, a significant majority, or 91 percent, say they would pay for a game app, and 86 percent would pay for an entertainment app.

Other app categories showed similar preference, with 84 percent for navigation, 82 percent for productivity, and 76 percent for news apps.

Ironically, it was only March when a Pew report revealed online users would rather get ads than pay for news content.

iPhone owners typically paid for one app for every two free apps downloaded, and 43 percent said they upgraded from a lite or trial version of an app to a full version. This may be due to Apple’s gung-ho approach promoting the App Store. Android and BlackBerry owners downloaded only one paid app for every three and a half free apps. BlackBerry owners were also the least likely to convert from a free version to the full.

Nielsen predicts the majority of mobile subscribers in the US will have smartphones by the end of 2011. Currently, the number is closer to 25 percent.

AppNation organizers believe there will be a million apps available by 2012. There’s quite a way to go, since Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Marketplace currently have 340,000 apps combined.

The report is so tightly focused on mobile applications that the findings can’t be extrapolated to user preferences for the Web in general. Nielsen did not address pricing when looking at the liklihood of upgrading or buying apps, and we know finding that perfect pricepoint is not easy.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Fahmida Y. Rashid

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Mobile

You can pick up the Google Pixel 7 Pro for only $500 today

The Pixel 7 Pro with its display turned on, showing the home screen.

If you've been holding out on buying a new phone for a while because prices are still expensive, then you may want to consider going for one of the older flagship phones. For example, while the Pixel 8 Pro is out, the Pixel 7 Pro is still a powerful and viable alternative, and even better, it has quite a few great deals on it. In fact, you can buy a brand new and sealed Pixel 7 Pro from Woot for just $500, rather than the usual $1,100, and that's for the 512GB version of the phone, so you get a lot of storage with it as well.

Mobile

A new Google Pixel Tablet is coming, but it’s not what you think

Google Pixel Tablet on its charging dock.

It's been almost a year since the Google Pixel Tablet went up for preorder, leading many Android tablet fans to wonder when the inevitable Pixel Tablet 2 will arrive. A new rumor suggests that Google could release a new Pixel Tablet as early as next month, but it's probably not what you were expecting or hoping for.

According to @MysteryLupin on X (formerly Twitter), Google is planning to "relaunch" the Pixel Tablet without the charging/speaker dock included in the box. As you'll likely recall, the speaker dock is the Pixel Tablet's standout feature. You can use the Pixel Tablet on its own as a traditional Android tablet when you want, and when you're done, you throw it on the dock to transform it into a smart display. The idea of Google selling the Pixel Tablet without its claim to fame is an interesting one.

Mobile

Anker sale: up to 40% off portable chargers, cable, and more

The iPhone 15 Pro Max being charged by the Anker MagGo Power Bank.

If you've been looking to pick up a new charging cable, charger, or all-in-one charging station for your Android phone or iPhone, then you'll be happy to know that Anker is having a rather large Earth-Day sale that you can take advantage of. There are a ton of discounts that you can take advantage of, too, with up to 40% off in some cases. I that wasn't enough, you can even snag yourself some free gifts, for example, one of the best accessories for a Galaxy S24 is the Anker Nano Power Bank if you spend more than $90, or even an Anker 621 Magnetic Battery if you spend over $120. Either way, there are a lot of options, and while we've shared some of our favorite deals below, it's also worth taking a look at everything Anker has to offer by pressing the button below.

What you should buy during Anker's Sale
One of the most basic things you may need for any device is a charging cable, and Anker has a couple of great options for that. If you're on an older iPhone with a lightning cable, you can grab Anker's Anker 641 USB-C to Lightning Cable that's 6 feet long using the coupon WSPEV2KENJP2. On the other hand, if you need a USB-C to connect and charge your devices, you can grab the 6-foot Anker 543 USB-C to USB-C Cable using the code WSPEV2EHDR0C.