Most Cell Phone Users Not Using Apps

A study of 1,917 cell phone-using adults found that only 35 percent of adults have cell phones with apps on them, but only two-thirds of that number actually use the apps on their phones.

About 29 percent of adult cell phone users have downloaded an app to their phone while 38 percent of the same group purchased a phone with preloaded apps, according to the research firm's Internet & American Life Project.

"Yet having apps and using apps are not synonymous," according to the report. "Of those who have apps on their phones, only about two-thirds of this group (68 percent) actually use that software. Overall, that means that 24 percent of U.S. adults are active apps users."

Other findings: older adult cell phone users are less likely to use the apps that are on their phones, and one in ten adults with a cell phone are not even sure if their phone is equipped with apps.

Also, apps users trend to be more male, younger, more affluent and more educated than other adults, according to Pew Internet. "Overall, the apps-using population also skews slightly Hispanic when compared with other adult cell phone users," according to the report.

According to the research, the 29 percent of adults who use an app ranks only as the ninth most popular non-voice activity for a phone. The highest: 76 percent of adult cell phone users take pictures with their phones. Another 72 percent send or receive text messages. Those were followed by accessing the Internet (38 percent), playing a game (34 percent), sending or receiving e-mail (34 percent), recording a video (34 percent), playing music (33 percent) and sending or receiving instant messages (30 percent).

Of the 29 percent who have downloaded an app, less than half say they have paid for an app, with the majority (53 percent) saying they only download apps that are free.