Many of the young entrepreneurs that I encounter, particularly those in university business incubator programs, are expending enormous amounts of resources – both in time and money – on developing phone apps. While this is an exciting, and often times, lucrative endeavor; all too often these ventures prove to be more exciting than lucrative! Here’s why. According to Christopher Mims of the Wall Street Journal, “The average app loses 77% of its users within three days after it is downloaded.” Moreover, according to Mims, “In the U.S., 30% of the time when an app is downloaded, a person never opens it more than twice.” My article here is not intended to discourage app development. Quite the contrary – I try to encourage innovation and new ideas. But, phone app developers need to go into development with their eyes wide open. Here’s another eye opening statistic. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, as cited by Mims, “For every iPhone sold, 119 apps have been downloaded…” Yet according to Mims, “…we use fewer than a quarter of those apps in any given month.” What this all boils down to is that the competition for the use of phone apps is fierce. To read the Mims article, go to the Wall Street Journal and search for the article entitled, “A Few Ways to Declutter Your Phone.”
