iPhone Apps – should Apple allow porn?

27 Feb

Pinch media have been monitoring apps usage since the App store was launched – and last week, in New York, they gave a presentation about iPhone Apps usage – based on 30 million application downloads. And the results are revealing!

Because it turns out that only 6m of these ever got used more than once! And by the end of three months virtually none of the apps were still being used.

iphone downloads stats

spacer6.jpgInterestingly, iPhone games look to be more successful. Compared to all other app-types they are used twice as much (on average). But even games usage quickly drops to around 7 minutes a day.

By comparison, all the other apps hover between a meager 3-5 minutes a day. Now we are talking averages – but at an average of 3-5 minutes, we can be sure that even the most enthusiastic users of an App are not “engaging” the App for long!

Is there are moral to this story?

iphone downloads stats

spacer6.jpgBefore we look at that – consider how paid verse free apps have faired. As the graph to the right, shows, paid Apps are not used much more than free Apps after the first 30 days. And even in the hey day of first purchase, average usage is only 7.5 minutes a day (compared to 6.5 mins for free Apps)

So what can we conclude from all these numbers?

Perhaps just that getting us to download Apps is a lot easier than getting us to use them? That most Apps look more useful than they really are? That iPhone users love playing with our iPhones – and Apps are a fun way to pass away commute time?

Or are these results a reflection of the way the App store has been developed? Both for users (the App store has a huge and confusing mass of Apps to choose from) and for developers (there is a giant queue of Apps waiting for approval as well as some really odd glitches in the approval process).

Apple – of course – wants to control the development of Apps. And this is testing their resources to the limit as the mass of developers are simple swamping the approval process.

Vtapspacer6.jpgChallenging Apple’s intention of course, is big money interests. Where there is money, there is the will. And where there is a will – there is a way! So we find that big money interests are developing sites that bypass the App store altogether. Nowhere has this been more enthusiastically demonstrated than by sites that offer streaming video to iPhone – such as VTap.

iPhone Sexspacer6.jpgBut the real challenge has come from sites offering video porn for iPhones – an area Apple has vowed to avoid. With stats for these sites showing a big growth in traffic and revenue, it would not be surprising if Apple was wanting to “follow the money”.

In fact, Apple recently let an iPhone sex site “accidentally” through the App approval process. It lasted a day before it was removed. Many expressed surprise that such a mistake could have been made in the approval process. But, given the huge bucks at stake we can’t help but wonder whether Apple was actually testing the waters – to see whether an APP of this type would get through! Potentially a big money spinner if it had!