Originally Posted by
Troy Tiscareno BTW, this is a completely bogus "statistic". Per Google's own reports, less than 10% of apps aren't downloaded at least once per month. But with over 1.2 million apps, there's going to be some junk apps or some apps with very, very narrow focus.
If even 10% of the apps in the store were "critical", that would still be 120,000 critical apps. You have to keep the scale of the issue in focus.
We all know there are HUGE apps that almost everyone uses: Google Maps, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, etc.
But there are a lot of apps on the tier just below that, that have millions of users, such as Quickbooks, Salesforce, GoToMeeting, and so on.
Below that are apps that are targeted to a single industry: medical, technical, manufacturing, restaurants, etc. While the average person may have zero interest in any of those apps, people in the targeted industries live and die by those apps, and use them all day everyday.
There are also many thousands of apps that work with specific hardware: audio gear, video gear, drones, cameras, lights, and various other sensors and so on. Heck, I'm now able to set up commercial-grade WiFi access point systems (with multiple APs across multiple sites all working together) right from my phone - and that's part of my job. I can remotely manage any of dozens of customers, from almost anywhere. Changes that I used to have to make appointments and drive out to make, I can now make while I'm still on the phone with that customer, in seconds.
So, it isn't just the big apps - it's also the "long tail" of specialty apps that people use that make them more efficient, which makes them more money and improves customer service (and customer ratings). App ecosystems are of gigantic importance - really, they make or break a platform. Trying to downplay that is to be in denial - and the marketplace sure knows the truth, and they vote with their wallets.