If you own a smartphone, chances are you’re in possession of well over a dozen apps to go with it. According to some survey numbers from earlier this year, the average smartphone user opens almost 40 apps per month and spends about three hours a day in apps. That means, in theory, that the average user has well over 40 apps on his or her smartphone; those are just the ones opened in a given month. With all this usage in mind, an interesting question comes to mind. How do mobile apps and the people behind them keep us using, and beyond that keep us paying?
Basic Advertisement
The easiest way to answer these questions is to acknowledge that mobile apps are advertised like crazy. Not only are the best of them propped up on the front pages of app stores, but there’s also a ton of collaboration going on that keeps apps in front of us. Sometimes they’ll work out in-app advertisements, such that as you use one app you see pitches for another. Sometimes a developer will go through critics, inviting reviews in the hopes of good critical feedback, but also with the old trick in mind that all publicity is good publicity. The specifics of mobile app advertisement could ultimately fill books, but suffice it to say a significant part of the answer to the questions posed above is quite simple: they advertise constantly.
Bargain Pricing
This is actually a fascinating concept, and can perhaps best be explained by men’s suits. That is, think about the last time you saw a suite worth buying that was offered for full price? Sure it happens on the higher end of things, but more of than not there’s a deal being pitched: two suits for the price of one, or $150 off all suits through a certain date. These pitches make you feel like you’re getting a deal, when in reality they’re usually just engineered to make the fair price seem like a lucky one. The same thing more or less goes on in mobile apps from time to time, which is why one article on similar topics found that the third most likely category of people to pay for apps are the bargain-prone. Some mobile apps are offered at discounts, some are offered for fees but promise to improve on an existing, related s
ervice, etc. Basically, if there’s a bargain, you’re being incentivized (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as some would make it sound).
Freemium Models
The freemium model has been made out to be a little more complicated than it actually is. It may best be explained via casino games, which incidentally are part of this whole discussion. On modern sites and apps, many casino games come with free spins, which is to say they allow you to play a given slot game for free, with the potential to earn real money. This in theory gets you interested in the game, such that when you run out of free spins and want to keep playing, you’ll pay to do it. It makes the most sense in these games because in the case of casinos we’re very conscious of there being a financial element to it all. However, the same model is basically being applied to get us to pay in mobile games as well. Any game that you can download for free, play for free, but improve at or dive deeper into by paying is bascically applying a freemium strategy.
Counter-Freemium Models
It almost sounds like a joke, but as freemium models have exploded in mobile gaming and mobile apps in general, some developers have effectively used the occasionally backlash against them to incentivize pay themselves. Think of it this way. If one news app gives you a free download and five articles a month but then asks you to pay, you’ll likely do it, but you might not love the idea. Then, if another news app comes along promising that you don’t have to keep paying to use it – that you can pay a one-time download fee and enjoy unlimited content – you may just be more likely than you would otherwise have been to pay for it.
Discover more from The Style Symphony
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.