The Atlantic reports that people with iPhones or Android (they are being diplomatic here) phones may download a lot of apps, but they tend to use very few of them after a while. The readily affordable nature of apps and Apples lack of a free trial mean that few apps tend to stand the test of time.

Faster data networks and fancier phones have steered more Americans to embrace the apps software craze born of our fondness for the computer-in-my-pocket. But like other shopping experiences done impulsively, the appeal of instantly downloading the latest apps -- prompted by recommendations from neighbors, cousins, blogs and news stories -- loses its luster quickly, industry data show. (USA Today)

For American adults, mobile phones are nearly a universal part of daily life. A report last summer from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project found that 83 percent of adults have some kind of cell phone, and over a third of Americans now have smart phones. An overview of the study showed how important mobile technology has become -- 40 percent of those surveyed found cell phones were an important tool in an "emergency" situation (a car breakdown, for example). "Mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool," Pew concluded.

Among smartphone owners, nine out of 10 say they use them for text messaging or picture taking. A chart in the New York Times recently reported that, overall, the top app category in 2011 was weather (it was an especially turbulent year) followed by navigation tools, finance, sports, games, Facebook, and Twitter. The pervasiveness of the phones and the significant increase in smartphone use leads logically to the belief that apps must be increasingly important also.

While true, that turns out to be more complicated than you might expect.

Get It and Forget It: Smartphone Users' Fickle Taste for Their Apps