There are 1.2 million apps in the Apple App Store, and despite the fact that most people love their apps more than their children, the majority of those apps go largely undiscovered and underappreciated. In this case, strangely, our eyes are not nearly as big as our app-etites.
Interest is not the issue, because usage numbers would suggest quite an obsession; the average smartphone user between 25 and 44 uses almost thirty apps per month and spends more than thirty hours a month using them. If more people were that obsessed with health and fitness, our world would look very very different in a pair of tights.
But even with that obsession, the average smartphone user only uses 0.0025% of the available apps. Which means they probably don’t even know about 1% of what’s out there. With all the amazing technology, content and inspiration out there, that number is much too low.
But one of the reasons it is so low is that there is no good, scalable way to wade through and discover apps that are most likely going to be relevant to you. Rankings are handy to some degree but how they’re organized is annoying. Plus, it’s like depending on the radio to discover music. Sure, Sam Smith and Adele are popular, but chances are there are a few others artists out there that will be more enjoyable for you. You just need effective places to look for them.
Which is why Pinterest was so popular to begin with. It elegantly used efficient, eye-rousing technology to leverage one of the oldest realities in the book: if I like you and some of your stuff, chances are that I’m going to like a lot of stuff that you like.
Enter App Pins. People will be able to pin apps to their Pinterest boards alongside their usual pretty projections of identity-by-extension. And it makes perfect sense.
If you like someone’s style, share their interests and generally find their tastes attractive, you’ll definitely want to download some of the apps they use. A vetted app index, if anything, is certainly an extension of one’s personality and a most functional one at that. Ya, recipes and trinkets from Etsy are fun to look at and it’s important to look at three million photos of “Rustic Weddings” before you decide on a centre-piece. But a few great apps can actually change your life in some great big ways.
And if we think about all of our favorite apps, there is a common thread amongst the front-runners; they were recommended to us by friends. Kind of like a lot of our favorite everythings.
Getting up to that 1% is about to get a lot easier. And a lot more fun.
#NOTABLE
Cover image from: istock.com/pressureUA
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