A day after we wrote about the future possibilities of mobile app monetization through advertising, a study came out that claims that only 13% of adult smartphone users have paid for an app.
To our credit, we talked about monetization through ads taking place specifically so that apps could be free of charge. But, the study is still compelling.
Because the mobile app market is huge. Apple is selling approximately 17 million apps per day. And the Android app market is catching up. But, it’s still a niche market doing the buying. In fact, only around 35% of adult cell phone owners even have apps on their phone (including those that come pre-loaded). And alone 24% actually use them. Primarily, mobile phones are still all about texting and taking photos, with more than 70% of adults using these features.
So as mainstream as things appear…doesn’t mean the whole world’s bought in yet.