NEW YORK—The emergence of mobile media and the rise of an "apps culture" is shifting the nature of communications for most Americans, raising questions about how mobile will play a part in future communications from all health care providers, including eyecare professionals.

Overall, cell phone use in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past decade. Fully eight in ten adults today (82 percent) are cell phone users, and about one-quarter of adults (23 percent) now live in a household that has a cell phone but no landline phone.

Along with the widespread embrace of mobile technology has come the development of an “apps culture,” the report sated. As the mobile phone has morphed from a voice device to a multi-channel device to an Internet-accessing mini-computer, a large market of mobile software applications, or “apps,” has arisen.

Some 35 percent of U.S. adults have software applications or "apps" on their phones, yet only 24 percent of adults use those apps. Many adults who have apps on their phones, particularly older adults, do not use them, and 11 percent of cell owners say they are not sure if their phone is equipped with apps. But among cell phone owners, 29 percent have downloaded apps to their phone—13 percent have paid to download them.

These facts and others are reflected in the latest report from Pew Internet Project, co-authored by Pew and Nielsen Media.

"An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cell phone users, particularly men and young adults," said Kristen Purcell, associate director for research at the Pew Internet Project. "Still, it is clear that this is the early stage of adoption when many cell owners do not know what their phone can do. The apps market seems somewhat ahead of a majority of adult cell phone users."

"This is a pretty remarkable tech-adoption story, if you consider that there was no apps culture until two years ago," said Roger Entner, co-author of the report and senior vice president and head of research and insights for Telecom Practice at Nielsen. "Every metric we capture shows a widening embrace of all kinds of apps by a widening population. It's too early to say what this will eventually amount to, but not too early to say that this is an important new part of the technology world of many Americans.

Among the most popular are apps that provide some form of entertainment (games, music, food, travel and sports) as well as those that help people find information they need and accomplish tasks (maps and navigation, weather, news, banking). With the advent of the mobile phone, the term “app” has become popular parlance for software applications designed to run on mobile phone operating systems, yet a standard, industry-wide definition of what is, and is not, an “app” does not currently exist. For the purpose of the Pew/Nielsen report, apps are defined as end-user software applications that are designed for a cell phone operating system and which extend the phone’s capabilities by enabling users to perform particular tasks.

The most recent Pew Internet Project survey asked a national sample of 1,917 cell phone-using adults if they use apps and how they use them. Broadly, the results indicate that while apps are popular among a segment of the adult cell phone using population, a notable number of cell owners are not yet part of the emerging apps culture.

35% of adults have cell phones with apps, but only two-thirds of those who have apps actually use them.

Of the 82 percent of adults today who are cell phone users, 43 percent have software applications or “apps” on their phones. When taken as a portion of the entire U.S. adult population, that equates to 35 percent who have cell phones with apps.

Apps users are younger, more educated, and more affluent than other cell phone users.

When compared with other cell phone using adults, and the entire U.S. adult population, the apps user population skews male, and is much younger, more affluent, and more educated than other adults. Overall, the apps-using population also skews slightly Hispanic when compared with other adult cell phone users.

App use still ranks relatively low when compared with other uses of cell phones.

While 24 percent with cell phones use applications on their phones, apps use still ranks relatively low when compared with other non-voice cell phone activities. Taking pictures and texting are far and away the most popular non-voice cell phone data applications, with more than seven in ten adult cell phone users embracing these features of their phones.


One in ten adult cell phone users (10 percent) had downloaded an app in the past week; 20 percent of cell phone users under age 30 download apps this frequently.

Those who download apps do so fairly frequently. Among apps downloaders, roughly half (53 percent) say their most recent download was in the past 30 days, including one third (33 percent) who say their last download was within the past week. As a fraction of all cell phone-using adults, that equates to 15 percent who have downloaded apps in the past month, and 10 percent who have downloaded apps in the past week. Among cell phone users under age 30, 20 percent have downloaded an app in the past week.

Among cell phone users with apps, the average adult has 18 apps on his or her phone

Among adult cell phone users who have software applications on their cell phones, the mean number of apps is 18. However, the median number of apps is 10, indicating there are heavy apps users on the high end of the response scale who have a disproportionate number of apps on their phones. This is particularly true among the youngest adults.

Again, there is some uncertainty among cell phone users, particularly older cell phone users, about what software they have on their phones. Fully 18 percent of cell phone users with apps on their phones do not know how many they have. That figure doubles to 36 percent among cell phone users age 50 and older.