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Study: 83% of daily users say they're 'addicted' to mobile apps

June 8, 2011 — 9:16am ET | By Jason Ankeny

Ninety-one percent of daily users say apps expose them to new things, 87 percent say apps let them have fun no matter where they are or what they're doing, 77 percent rely on apps as their personal assistant, 75 percent say apps give them time to relax and 70 percent believe apps make the rest of life better.

MTV reports that 53 percent of survey respondents cite personal recommendations as a decisive factor behind which apps they download, while 52 percent rely on user reviews and 42 percent credit seeing a friend use a particular app. In addition, 47 percent discovered applications via Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store and Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market. Among free apps, 50 percent of respondents cite a high number of positive ratings as the decisive factor behind a download, followed by personal recommendations at 43 percent; among premium apps, price is the decisive download factor for 63 percent of respondents, trailed by whether there is a free or lite preview version (49 percent).

MTV adds that while the early stages of the mobile app lifecycle are informed by recommendations, later stages are more personal. Three-fourths of respondents say it's very important that an app is "entertaining or fun to use," while 62 percent say it's critical that an app "feels good" in terms of the touchscreen user experience. Half of respondents say it's very important that an app "constantly has new things for me to see, read or do," and 83 percent say they are "often surprised at how useful an app can become even if I don't initially think this is something I need."

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