By far the most common discovery method for mobile apps is searching, with 53% of Android users and 47% of iOS users in the US found the last app they downloaded by searching the app store, according to new research.
The study, from TUNE, found that 84% of US smartphone users have downloaded an app in the past two weeks, and 64 per cent within the last week.
The influence of the app stores themselves isn’t as powerful as you might think, with just 10 per cent of Android users, and nine per cent of iOS users, discovering the app due to its presence on a category Top Chart ranking. Featured apps proved more successful on iOS – with nine per cent of downloads coming from the App Store’s featured screen, and a further two per cent from being featured within a category – than Android, where just six per cent found the app through it being featured.
Ads drove even fewer downloads, accounting for five per cent on Android and three per cent on iOS, the majority of which in both cases came from another app, rather than an install ad on a social network.