The Magic 26% of Mobile Application Users

What’s so special about the number 26%? Well, when we’re talking about mobile applications, it represents the percentage of people who will only use a mobile app once and never go back. It ALSO represents the number of people who remain very loyal to an app, using it tens or hundreds of times…

Localytics recently released two mobile application analytics studies over the past month, and they show that the window for securing a loyal customer is relatively small. Approximately one-quarter of the users who download an app will never use it again. This means that they are willing to give it a try, but if the app does not live up to their expectations quickly, they may never give it a second chance. The majority of people who do try the app again, will make the decision to stick with an app or look elsewhere by the forth time they use the application. Surprisingly, the same number of people who only try the app once also become loyal customers.

To gather their metrics, Localytics analyzed app usage data from thousands of Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 applications that subscribed to their mobile application analytics service. For all new customers of an app between July and September 2010, Localytics counted the number of times customers used the same app through early March 2011.