Here’s a great post over at 37 Signals, posing the question: how many of the apps on your iPhone do you actually make frequent use of?
David Heinemeier Hansson says that the only third party apps he actually uses on a regular basis are Echofon and Bloomberg.
He says:
“And yet I use my iPhone all the time. It’s my favorite piece of technology and has been for years. Do you know why? Because Apple nailed the basics. Safari, Camera, iPod, Clock, Weather, Photos, Messages, Mail, and Maps are the apps that I use 95% of the time. Those are the ones that made me buy the phone and stick with it.”
I think he has a good point. If I take a good look at my iPhone, there’s only a tiny handful of apps I use daily. Twitter, Camera+, Simplenote – that’s about it. Everything else gets infrequent use. I could delete the vast majority of apps on there and I wouldn’t miss them.
Where do you stand on this? Should you keep your iPhone free of cruft, with just a dozen or so essentials? Or do you feel that, since you have a portable computer in your pocket all the time anyway, you might as well fill it up with potentially useful stuff? It’s like carrying a pocket knife, right? You never know when a particular blade is going to come in useful.
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
38 responses to ““Ten Apps Is All I Need” – How Few Can You Live With? [Have Your Say]”
I agree with one exception. The Apple weather.app is like using an abacus when it comes to weather on modern smartphones.
Most of my apps can go days without being touched, some weeks or months.
But then again, I have over 150, and I do like having a variety of games with me at all times.
I agree
iOS 5’s is much better, but still with a lack of maps. I use weather channel
Facebook (worst app ever, but I need it), spring, and engadget. I use those a million times a day.
I disagree about maps too. If only it spoke directions. I can’t safe;y use it while driving
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. WordPress
4. Hanging with Friends
5. Words with Friends
6. Messages
7. Safari
etc…
-Chris
http://friendsofmaconfb.wordpr…
I agree, too. I’m not sure how accurate it is in America, but here in the U.K. the iPhone’s stock weather app is rarely correct. I use WeatherPro and I love it.
I could probably delete a large number of the applications I’ve got on my iPhone, but even those I don’t use that often are handy to have. For example, I always use Safari for browsing, but for websites that I don’t want to load in “mobile” mode, I use a third-party browser that identifies itself as a desktop browser.
I also have a ton of games that I don’t play that often, but they’re good to have when you’re travelling, etc.
All of my most used apps are on my home screen (Tweetbot, iXpenseIt, Evernote, Instapaper, Kindle, etc.), but I prefer to keep many more in folders on the second screen. Sure, I don’t use them all the time, but it’s nice to have them there when I need them.
facebook
whatsapp
twitter
spotify (music)
weather
mail
safari
beejive fb (facebook chat)
bild (german yellow press app)
dict.cc (translator)
1) Mail
2) Camera
3) App Store
4) iPod/Music
5) Messages
6) Soundhound
7) Facebook
8) Engadget
9) Foursquare
10) Mint
11) Twitter
12) Instagram . . . .
But I really do need all 150+ of my apps! :P
3rd Party Apps in no particular order. The Weather Channel, Stitcher, Facebook, Twitter, iLuvAppClock, Reader, USA Today, Instagram, Camera+, Flixster, FCC Test & Sol Free. Finally, I suspect the PogoPlug App I started using last night will become a frequently used app in no time.
http://jtsblog.com
tunein radio :) the only reason I have the device
Music (iOS5)
Mail
Safari
Twitter
TomTom
1Password
TuneIn Radio
Remote
Mobile Mouse
Reminders (iOS5)
When I first got my iphone I had probably 50 apps loaded on it. Twitter, facebook, games etc.
After I got my ipad I put pretty much all my apps on that and now I have the core apps, twitter and bejeweled on my iphone and that’s it. Everything else is on my ipad. But even there, I have perhaps 100 apps on the ipad but only use maybe 10-12 of them on a daily basis. And that’s if I’m at work. If it’s a day off I might use 3-4 of them.
I probably have about 15 apps on my iPad. But, I organize them all the apps on the device into folders and then place those on the dock, so it gives the illusion of no icons at all. Or at least it did, until I installed the iOS5 beta and Apple froze the Newsstand app in place.
The only custom apps I use are Pandora, Hold’em, Sleep Sounds and TWC.
i found the mobile site for facebook much more appealing than the horrendous app. just make it a web app.
I use very few apps that don’t come preinstalled on the iPhone. Twitter, Camera+ and maybe two others.
I use Facebook, Twitter, maps, Tom Tom, Reeder, Instapaper, Dropbox, InchCalc, Zenbe Lists, Weather Channel, Rdio, Pandora, Epicurious, Hipstamatic, and Camera+ on an almost daily basis. So no, the built in apps are not enough for me. For the mainstream consumer? Probably.