How many apps do you have – poll results

GLOBAL – The votes have been counted and as ever you’ve not been shy in coming forward with your responses. Hundreds of you voted on last week’s poll asking how many apps you’re running on your current device. As ever things aren’t as straightforward as they seem and the question could be interpreted a number of ways. More on that later, meanwhile get the results after the jump.

To keep the question as straightforward as possible, and the results accurate, we specified that the question relates only to your current device, and apps that are currently installed on that device. But even given that restriction, the results were impressive: if content is king then Ovi Store is a happy kingdom. The largest proportion of respondents, a full 43 per cent, went for the highest option available, 11+.

In some cases, it was clear that the number was significantly more than 11, too. Reader gregg003 proudly told us he has more than 40, Amit has installed upwards of 30 on his 5800 XpressMusic in just one month, while Farhan claims to have downloaded a whopping 75.
Widget2’s quota of 36 reads like an Ovi Store wishlist:

Apps: Mobbler. Local Tagging, Gizmo5, Yahoo!Go, Facebook, Sports Tracker, PhoneLocator, Opera Mini, Skyfire, MSN Messenger, DivX Player, Gmail, Google Maps, PhotoArt, Pocket Express, Strands Social Player, ColourChooser, Mail for Exchange, Files on Ovi, Presenter, WeFi, Nimbuzz, Plusmo, Point & Find, YouTube, Here and Now, Ovi Store, BBC iPlayer, Internet Radio, Vlingo, Qik, Shazam, Traveler, JoikuSpot Express, Tweets60, Pixelpipe.

The next-highest option, 7-10, received a healthy 18 per cent of the vote, while 4-6 garnered 19 per cent. That means JBC’s admission to currently having just three on his recently updated E71 puts him in the bottom 20 per cent – time to get redownloading. Right now I’m downloading everything and anything on Conversations’ own Nokia N900.

Just over one in 10 respondents (11 per cent) owned up to having just one, two or three apps currently residing on their Nokia handset, while five per cent admitted they hadn’t downloaded a single app and the same proportion couldn’t resist going for the ‘what’s an app?’ option.

Our poll question itself asked only the number of apps you had ‘downloaded and installed’, but an interesting debate cropped up over what constitutes a ‘running’ app.

Reader Simon argued that we should distinguish between apps that ended up just sitting there and ones that were in regular use.

Installed is not running. I run about 11 separate applications on my E71 at any given time. I have over 50 installed.

Another reader, cycnus, said their own proportion of ‘running’ apps was far higher.

I have many apps on my phone, but 95% I used opera, nimbuzz, worldmate, the nokia web browser. The other 5% (beside e-mail, sms, camera and pre-installed apps) is game. I download a couple of free/demo game, and so far have found no game that could really be counted as addictive enough.

But while Simon’s point that installed is not running certainly has merit, it’s worth repeating JBC’s thoughts in response:

I’d suggest though that we all have apps installed which we don’t run every day. But isn’t the same true of apps on your computer? It certainly is mine. There’re apps which you’ll try, but their usefulness is short-lived and so quickly become redundant. There are others though, which spend 99% of the time doing nothing, but spark up when the occasion requires them to.

Perhaps in the end it’s just a matter of interpretation. Either way, as Ovi Store goes from strength to strength we look forward to repeating this poll in a year’s time to getting another glimpse at just what apps you’ve been downloading, and using.