Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

Report: smartphone owners willing to pay for apps

Fahmida Y. Rashid
By

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.

Recommended Videos

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

Related

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
Fahmida Y. Rashid
Former Digital Trends Contributor
How to mirror your smartphone or tablet on your TV
The LG G3 OLED TV on a stand, showing a mountain scene on the screen.

Having the ability to cast apps, songs, videos, and photos to your smart TV is a feature that never gets old. But what if we told you that you can probably mirror your entire smartphone or tablet screen right to your TV? This of course means that everything you’re seeing and doing on your mobile device’s screen will show up on your TV. And the best part: You likely won’t even need a wire to pull this trick off.

Your screen mirroring setup and experience will vary based on what kind of phone, tablet, or PC you’re rocking; but there are many parts of the process that are the same from one gadget to the next. Still, we thought it best to put together this article for easy reference.

Read more
How to connect an iPhone to a Mac with or without a cable
An iPhone 15 Pro Max laying face-down outside, showing the Natural Titanium color.

Connecting your iPhone to a Mac computer is relatively easy to do. With options for wired and wireless connectivity, hooking your iOS device up to your MacBook or Mac mini unlocks a world of options. Not only will you be able to upload media to your phone, but you can also use your computer to load firmware updates onto your mobile device. And today, we’re going to teach you how to get your new or old iPhone ready for a wired or wireless handshake.

Here’s a guide on how to connect your device to a Mac, with or without a USB-C or Lightning cable attached.

Read more
There’s a big problem with the iPhone’s Photos app
The Apple iPhone 15 Plus's gallery app.

While my primary device these days continues to be my iPhone 15 Pro, I’ve dabbled with plenty of Android phones since I’ve been here at Digital Trends. One of my favorite brands of phone has been the Google Pixel because of its strong suite of photo-editing tools and good camera hardware.

Google first added the Magic Eraser capability with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, which is a tool I love using. Then, with the Pixel 8 series, Google added the Magic Editor, which uses generative AI to make edits that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. There are also tools like Photo Unblur, which is great for old photographs and enhancing images that were captured with low-quality sensors.

Read more