GeoffSteffens.com

Mobile analytics company Pinch Media recently released some interesting iPhone app usage statistics (full article).  It was covered in a bit more detail at Smashing Magazine .  From the Smashing Magazine article:

• A measily 3% of people who have downloaded a free app use it after 30 days.
• Only 20% of users come back to use a free app on the 2nd day, and it’s steadily downhill thereafter
  
  
• Paid app usage drops of in pretty much the same fashion as free apps

And on the illusion that a free, ad-supported applications will bring in the dollars:

• Paid apps bring in, at minimum, $0.70 per customer
• Free apps are downloaded on average 6.6x more than a paid app
• Assuming a free app is launched 12 times per user
• Would the 80 sessions (6.6 users x 12 uses each) going to result in more revenue than the 1 paying customer?

The answer is: unlikely. Using a model where 1 ad is displayed per session and a CPM advertising model, you would require a CPM of nearly $9.  Current market rates are more around $0.50 - $2.00.

I found this to be quite an interesting read