Apple iTunes 和Google Play各有超过一百万个应用程序可供我们的智能手机下载。亚马逊和 Windows(Amazon and Windows)正在努力开发 50 万个智能手机应用程序(smartphone apps)。您会期望我们所有的智能手机都挤满了应用程序，因为您知道，肯定有人在使用它们。当我们观察智能手机的普通用户时，我们会发现一个不同的现实。您的应用程序使用情况是否符合(profile fit)平均值？请仔细阅读，找出答案。
从音乐到应用程序：数以百万计的选择和数十亿的下载量
Apple通过其 iTunes 在线商店成功地改变了音乐行业。(music industry)2002 年，史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)说服所有 5 大唱片公司的高管注册 iTunes，并为主导互联网(Internet)音乐发行的Napster 、(Napster) Kazaa和 BitTorrent的(Kazaa and BitTorrent)狂野西部(Wild West)提供合法替代品。Apple创造了一个控制严密、设计友好的零售空间，让每个人都可以下载和收听音乐，无论(music regardless)他们的计算机知识(computer knowledge)如何。消费者热情地接受了新店。仅仅一年之后，iTunes 就销售了 70% 的合法产品在线音乐(music online)。
几年后的 2008 年，Apple在应用程序领域重复了这种方法。应用程序的分布反映了以前音乐行业(music industry)缺乏在线零售组织。应用程序(Apps)由每个制作人直接在线分发，当您决定下载应用程序时，您必须在每个制作人处输入您的付款详细信息。在 2007 年推出 iPhone(iPhone launch)取得巨大成功的基础上， Apple推出了App Store，为应用程序创建了在线零售空间。Apple严格控制应用程序在其设备上可以做什么或不可以做什么，并确保统一的支付系统(payment system)为此，它保留了巨额佣金。
消费者再次对简单易用的App Store反应良好，而开发人员也迅速对快速接触大量客户的潜力进行了热身。2011年1 月(January 2011)，App Store记录了应用程序的第 100 亿次下载。
谷歌(Google)在 2008 年加入了应用商店竞赛(app store race)。在一个扭曲的顺序中，他们添加了购买和下载安卓(Android)音乐的选项，以完全反映苹果(Apple)的模式。几年后，微软和亚马逊加入了同样的模式。(Microsoft and Amazon)值得注意的是，当Windows 应用商店(Windows Store)作为 Windows 8 的一部分推出时，微软(Microsoft)将应用商店(app store)带到了世界上大多数台式机上。
在智能手机领域，应用商店主导着向消费者分发应用。在线商店中数以百万计的应用程序和数十亿的下载量将使我们相信每部智能手机都充满了应用程序。但他们是吗？
在智能手机应用方面，我们都是简单的人
iPhone 在推出时取得了巨大的成功，尽管它只有少数几个与操作系统(operating system)一起预装的应用程序。经过 7 年并为其创建了数百万个应用程序，我们的智能手机今天看起来如何？
以下是Localytics(Localytics)、Research Now 和皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)今年开展的调查得出的一些发现：
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大多数人的智能手机上只有几个应用程序(The majority of people have only a few apps on their smartphones)。62% 拥有智能手机的人的智能手机上最多有 20 个应用程序。对于 30% 的智能手机用户，您最多会找到 10 个应用程序。大多数人不会在他们的智能手机上安装很多应用程序。
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应用程序的实际使用率甚至更低。(The actual use of the apps is even lower.)81% 的智能手机用户每周最多使用 10 个应用程序。46% 的人最多使用 5 个应用程序。
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承诺了，承诺没有兑现(Promise made, promise not fulfilled)。这些庞大的应用商店一定是乐土。他们是吗？事实证明，我们给了他们一个机会，我们尝试了许多应用程序，但绝大多数都证明(majority prove)是失望的。仅使用一天后，三分之二的Android用户和四分之三的 iOS 用户都会卸载他们刚刚在智能手机上下载的应用程序。一个月后检查，这些应用程序中只有 3% 多一点仍然安装。
是时候在智能手机上进行春季大扫除了(spring cleaning)
这是我对此的看法：验证智能手机上的每个应用程序，并问自己上次使用它是什么时候，你认为下次会在什么时候使用它。无情地卸载智能手机上的“睡眠者”。其中许多应用程序运行后台进程，这些进程会占用您的智能手机上的活动内存、存储空间、处理能力和(power and data)每月运营商分配(carrier allocation)的数据。智能手机用户(smartphone user)的平均资料告诉我们，我们可以不用我们智能手机上至少一半的应用程序。
你安装了多少应用程序？您最常使用哪些应用程序？(Which)您(Are)是经常尝试新的应用程序还是更愿意让其他人尝试一下？让我们(Let)使用下面的评论表进行讨论。
We don't really use many apps on our smartphones. Do you?
Apple iTunes and Google Play each have more than a million and a half apрs available for downloаd on oυr smartphones. Amazon and Windows are working their way towards half a million smartphone apps. You would expect that all our smartphonеs are jam-packed with apps becaυse, yoυ know, someone must be using them. When we look at average users of smartphoneѕ, we find a different reality. Does your app usage profile fit with thе average? Read on to find out.
From music to applications : millions of options and billions of downloads
Apple managed to transform the music industry with its iTunes online store. In 2002, Steve Jobs convinced the executives from all 5 major record labels to sign up for iTunes and offer a legal alternative to the Wild West of Napster, Kazaa and BitTorrent, that dominated the distribution of music on the Internet. Apple created a retail space with tight controls and a friendly design that allowed everybody to download and listen to music regardless of their computer knowledge. Consumers received the new store with enthusiasm. After only one year iTunes was selling 70% of all legal music online.
A few years later, in 2008, Apple repeated this approach with the world of applications. The distribution of applications mirrored the lack of online retail organization like the music industry before. Apps were distributed online directly by each producer and you had to enter your payment details at each one of them when you decided to download an app. Building on the huge success of its iPhone launch in 2007, Apple came up with its App Store, that created an online retail space for apps. Apple imposed tight controls on what apps can or cannot do on its devices and ensured a unified payment system for which it retained a hefty commission.
Consumers once again responded well to the simple, easy to use App Store and the developers, in turn, warmed up quickly to the potential of quickly reaching a large number of clients. In January 2011, the App Store recorded the 10 billionth download of an app.
Google joined the app store race in 2008. In a twisted order, they added the option to purchase and download music for Android afterwards, in order to mirror completely Apple's model. Microsoft and Amazon joined the same model a couple of years later. Notably Microsoft brought the app store to the majority of desktops in the world, when Windows Store was launched as part of Windows 8.
In the world of smartphones, app stores dominate the distribution of apps to consumers. The millions of apps available in the online stores and the billions of downloads would make us believe that every smartphone is full of apps. But are they?
We are simple people when it comes to smartphone apps
iPhone has been a smashing success when it launched, although it had only a few apps that came preloaded together with the operating system. After 7 years and millions of applications being created for it, how do our smartphones look today?
Here are a few findings based on surveys ran this year, by Localytics, Research Now and Pew Research Center:
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The majority of people have only a few apps on their smartphones. 62% of people with a smartphone have at most 20 apps on their smartphones. For 30% of smartphone users, you will find at most 10 apps. Most people do not install many apps on their smartphones.
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The actual use of the apps is even lower. 81% of smartphone owners, use maximum 10 apps per week. 46% of people use maximum 5 apps.
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Promise made, promise not fulfilled. These huge app stores must be the promised land. Are they? It turns out that we give them a shot and we try many apps, but the overwhelming majority prove to be disappointments. After only one day of use, two-thirds of Android users and three quarters of iOS users, uninstall the apps they just downloaded on their smartphone. Check one month later and only a little over 3% of these apps are still installed.
It is time for spring cleaning on your smartphone
Here is my take on this: verify each app on your smartphone and ask yourself when did you use it last time and when do you think you will use it next. Be merciless and uninstall the "sleepers" on your smartphone. Many of these apps run background processes that take away active memory, storage on your smartphone, processing power and data from your monthly carrier allocation. The average profile of the smartphone user tells us that we can do without at least half of the apps we have on our smartphones.
How many apps do you have installed? Which apps do you use most frequently? Are you trying out frequently new apps or do you prefer to let others take the plunge? Let's discuss using the comments form below.
