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What's App-ening? Apps for iPhones don't need to be useful to be popular, experts say [Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.]
(Winston-Salem Journal (NC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 10--If you can think of something you'd like your iPhone to do, odds are there's an app for that.
One of the most popular features on Apple's iPhone and iTouch are apps, computer applications that can be downloaded and added to the device. Last month, Apple announced that there have been more than 2 billion downloads and that there are more than 85,000 apps available, numbers that are all the more impressive when you consider that the App Store has only been open since July 2008.
Sure, there are apps or similar products for other smartphones and digital devices, but the iPhone app is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. And it's changing the way people use their phones.
"I was always a user that just wanted a telephone to talk to people," said Lance Berrier, a systems engineer at Computer Tree and an avid iPhone user. "I got the iPhone, and now I feel like it's hard to set it down, like I'm missing something if it's in the other room."
"It's technological determinism," said Ananda Mitra, a professor at Wake Forest University who studies how people use technology. "We are determined by the technology, we use it because it is there. And people think, just because it is there, I will get it. Whether it will add to my quality of life in any way is a little irrelevant."
And because many apps are free or cheap, they can tend to pile up.
"I have more than I use on a regular basis," Berrier said. "I've probably purchased a couple of dozen, but on a regular basis I probably only use four or five."
Berrier's not alone.
A study done in February by Pinch Media, a company that analyzed smart-phone usage, found that only 20 percent of people who download free apps use them longer than one day, and the numbers keep declining.
"Users stop using the average applications pretty quickly," the report says. "Long-term audiences are generally 1 percent of total downloads." The numbers aren't much better for paid apps, which are used more than once by about 30 percent and then decline steadily.
The key is to find an app that's actually useful, as opposed to one that will clutter up your iPhone screen.
"Everybody's going to have different standards," Berrier said. "A lot of my stuff is special-purpose. I have a couple that are work-related, but the one I use probably the most is ForeFlight. I'm a private pilot, and that lets me look up airport information, weather and flight plans."
He is also fond of such apps as the Amazon Kindle, which lets users read books on their iPhone screen, and ones that let users manage their
Netflix queue, buy Fandango tickets, and so on.
"I do use my iPhone quite a bit as a phone, believe it or not," he said.
"It's hard to say that there's any one thing people look for since there's not really one kind of person," said Jeff Scott, an expert on iPhone apps. He runs 148Apps.com, a Web site based in San Francisco that reviews apps (the name of the site comes from the number of apps that an iPhone could originally hold, though that number has now grown to 180).
"There are the business people that are looking for apps that fit their business processes and needs," Scott said. "Gamers that are looking for games that fit their gaming style and preferences. Power users that are always looking for apps that let them do things quicker and better. And then there are the users that are just looking for a laugh and might be occasionally taken by a productivity app or two. And then there is, of course, crossover amongst all of these types."
Berrier said that some of his favorite apps aren't exactly useful, such as the Zippo lighter application that emulates a cigarette lighter, or one that makes the sound of a light saber when he swings his iPhone around.
Mitra said that one way to break down iPhone apps is to look at whether they are useful or, as he puts it, banal.
"By and large, if you look at the thousands of apps that are out there, these are apps that do not have the traditional functional value.... We add value in different ways because we are a fragmented audience," he said.
Mitra prefers the Blackberry to the iPhone, explaining it this way: "The iPhone has become a phone that is also a toy, while the Blackberry is a phone that is also a tool.... They relate two different forms of use."
But, he said, there are some iPhone apps that he finds very useful.
"Many are absolutely fantastic," Mitra said. "Some have a functional value to your life, particularly ones that are related to GPS systems.... I'm biased, but I like the location-based apps that tell me where I am, what speed I'm going, which direction and so forth."
And then there are entertaining apps such as ones that allow users to create music by blowing into the iPhone to reproduce sounds of musical instruments. "They are quite innovative," he said.
One type that some find entertaining but Mitra doesn't are the multitude of apps that, as he described it, "make the sound of a person passing wind.... It cannot get more banal than that."
tclodfelter@wsjournal.com -- 727-7371
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Here are some interesting apps out of the 85,000 available. These are free unless otherwise noted.
Entertaining apps
Etch Lite: One of umpteen doodling apps, this one is based on the classic children's toy. Run your finger across the screen to draw, then shake the iPhone to erase your artwork.
Anthem: This music-videos app lets you type in your favorite band and then watch YouTube videos of them or similar bands
Parapanic Lite: In this addictive game, stick-figure parachutists try to land on boats and avoid falling into the sea, where hungry cartoon sharks await them.
The Office Challenge: This app has quick-to-play, lively games based on characters from the popular NBC sitcom.
Useful apps
iHandy Level: This app emulates a level; place it on a surface and adjust it until the bubble is in the center.
Petcentric: Find pet-friendly hotels, nearby dog parks and more with this app for animal lovers.
Cardstar: Take photos of the loyalty cards from your grocery stores, pharmacies and so on and then have the clerk scan in the screen.
Have2P: This app uses GPS to find the nearest public restroom to where you are; some include reviews and let you know if you have to buy something first.
Wacky apps
Coin Free: Why bother with flipping a clunky real-world coin when you can pull out your iPhone, click some buttons and flip a cybercoin instead?
Zombies V. Sheep: This shooting game defies easy description, but it's a lot of fun. Shoot zombies, save sheep from flaming skulls, and so on.
iBeer ($0.99): Fill your iPhone screen with beer, tilt to sip it, shake it to foam it up, make burp noises ... all without hangovers.
Sheep Launcher Plus ($0.99): What is with sheep apps? This one lets you fling sheep, pigs or frogs, all without incurring the wrath of PETA.
To see more of the Winston-Salem Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.journalnow.com/.
Copyright (c) 2009, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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