Top 20 Free iTunes Apps – Facebook Remains in the Lead

April 26, 2012 by Sandra Burciaga

What’s your smartphone conjunction function? Some of us have numerous screens filled with games and social networking apps, while others keep it strictly business with online banking apps and various calculators. No matter how you choose the functionality of your mobile phone and the apps that it hosts, one thing for sure is that we live in a mobile app-driven world where a great majority of our daily life is now spent in the palms of our hands.

More than ever, mobile apps are peaking in popularity. At the start of the whole Instagram craze, I can’t tell you how many friends I had purchasing iPhones just so they can join the once exclusive iPhone-only party. Can you imagine purchasing a $400+ phone just so you can have access to one particular app?

As the innovative leader of hosting a wealth of apps for free and for purchase, you can just about find an app for anything in iTunes. From the once popular with children only, Angry Birds (which now even my 40-year-old brother loves to play) to the functional Flashlight app, all the way to the name-that-tune-style app, Shazamâ€"selecting an app for your phone can be quite the overwhelming task. The possibilities are endless.

According to the Huffington Post, in October of 2011, Apple had announced that iPhone, iPad and iPod users had downloaded over 18 billion applications from the iTunes App Store since the service launched in 2008. With a majority of those downloaded apps being free of charge, the most popular free iTunes app downloads in 2011 were Facebook, Pandora Radio and Words with Friendsâ€"with Facebook coming up as the most downloaded free app in the iTunes store. [1]

In 2012 not too much has changed and people still love their app games and social media apps. Facebook continues to pave the way as the leading free app download followed by the addicting, Words with Friends.

Luth Research recently partnered with Company Data Trees and Mobile+Positive to measure app popularity. The Luth Research App Traffic Index (ATI) is an estimate of the total downloads an app has received over its entire lifespan.  It is based on statistical analysis of comments, ratings, price, category and date of last release of each app in the iTunes and Android marketplace. Below are the top 20 free iTunes apps:  [2] [3] [4]

1. Facebook
2. Words With Friends Free
3. Zombie Farm
4. Angry Birds
5. Pandora Radio
6. UNO Free
7. Myspace
8. Angry Birds Lite
9. PAC-MAN Lite
10. Backgrounds
11. Flashlight
12. AIM (free)
13. Touch Hockey FS5 (Free)
14. Movies by Flixster
15. Google Earth
16. Paper Toss
17. Google Search
18. Tap ZOO
19. Tap Tap Revenge 3
20. Shazam

 

Dependent on what career you’re in, it appears the only functional and non-game related apps on this list are Pandora Radio, Flashlight, AIM, Movies by Flixter, Google Earth, Google Search and Shazam (unless you’re using Shazam as game). I’m surprised Instagram isn’t on this list. I’m also shocked AIM and MySpace are considered one of the top 20 free iTunes apps. People still use those? I guess so …

What do you think of these apps? What apps are most popular in your mobile phone? Let us know your thoughts via Twitter and/or our Facebook page. [5] [6]

~ Written by Sandra Burciaga - Digital Marketing Manager at Pomegranate

 

Links

1. ^{^} Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com)
2. ^{^} Luth Research (www.luthresearch.com)
3. ^{^} Company Data Trees (api.companydatatrees.com)
4. ^{^} Mobile+Positive (mobilepositive.com)
5. ^{^} Twitter (twitter.com)
6. ^{^} Facebook (www.facebook.com)

source: pom8.com