By Grant Shepherd

SYDNEY: A recent study has outlined that despite an impressive 500 million downloads from the Apple online App Store, iPhone users are quickly losing interest in their recent purchases, and many aren’t even bothering to look at them at all.

The study which was run by Pinch Media, a company that offers advice to developers of iPhone applications, has shown that fewer than five per cent of iPhone users are still actively using an application a month after downloading it.

Another more alarming fact is that only 30 per cent of users who purchase an application from the App Store use it the next day. This shows that many users are clearly wasting their money on applications they don’t need or want.

Their findings also highlighted that iPhone users lose interest in free programs faster than paid ones and Pinch Media has commented “paid applications generally retain their users longer than free applications, although the drop-off is still pretty steep”.

In total the report outlined that only one per cent of total downloads have a long term audience. And the longevity of applications generally came down to its category.

Overall games proved to be the most used of all applications, but still witness dramatic falls in interest.

In the scheme of things, Apple aren’t going to be fazed by these findings, because the App Store has proven to be incredibly successful for the company with over 500 million downloads since July and over 15,000 applications available.

But does the dramatic decrease in interest give a glimpse of what’s to come for the service? Is the App Store going to lose interest like the applications being downloaded, or are these findings just highlighting the fact that iPhone apps are intended to be used as novelties and not for long term use?