Report: Relatively few people use cellphone apps

Cell phone apps may be endlessly fascinating to those of us here in Planet Tech. But in the real world -- not so much.

About one-in-three adults has a cell phone with apps, The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and The Nielsen Company found in recent surveys. Their new study, "The Rise of Apps Culture," adds that just 68% of those who do have a phone with apps -- about a quarter of all adults -- actively use them.

Although interest in apps is growing, "this is the early stage of adoption when many cell owners do not know what their phone can do," says Kristen Purcell, the Pew Internet Project's associate director for research. "The apps market seems somewhat ahead of the majority of adult cell phone users."

People are far less interested in apps than they are in using their phones to take pictures, send and receive text messages, and access the Internet, the researchers found.

But the study says that many people may be using apps without knowing it. There's confusion "over whether the different software that comes preloaded on their phone are 'apps,' or whether an app is something that must be purchased separately or downloaded from the internet."

Those who do use apps are mostly interested in games, checking the news and weather, and finding information from maps, navigation, or search services.

By David Lieberman