Fickle iPhone users and their apps

I've been using my iPhone for about six months now, and have pretty much settled on the applications I use regularly. Something new comes along every month or so, but most of the apps are the same as they were a couple of weeks after I started using the iPhone. PC World finds that most iPhone users resemble "an average night after the singles bar":

Listen up, iPhone lovers: You may to think twice before shelling out your cash for that next app. A new report compiled by iPhone analytics firm Pinch Media finds the majority of people stop using apps the very day after they download them. Where's the love?

You Promised You'd Call...

The data, presented at this week's New York iPhone Developers Meetup, is actually geared toward developers — but there are some interesting insights for average App Store users, too. Here are three fun facts for any smartphone fan:

• Fact #1: With free apps, a whopping 80 percent of people abandon their selections the day after their first interaction.

• Fact #2: When it comes to paid apps, less than a third of users go back for more the following day.

• Fact #3: Only 1 percent of people end up developing a long-term usage relationship with any given app. Instead, most tend to lose interest after only a few minutes.

Is it just me, or is this all starting to sound eerily like an average night after the singles bar?

Because Apple's App Store doesn't have a "try before you buy" option, lots of pay applications have cut-down "Lite" versions available for free downloading. Some of them are good enough to potentially take sales away from their full-feature siblings, while others really are just lobotomized clones (they look the same, but the functionality is seriously impaired). It's possible that potential buyers who try the Lite versions don't get persuaded because the functionality drop-off is too great, or they find that the Lite version works well enough for their needs.