Tapping About My Generation

Anyone who’s raised a teenager knows they like to leave the house without a decent jacket, regardless of whether it’s raining or cold. That probably explains why there’s no weather app listed among the top apps for Gen Zers—young people don’t want to know if it’s going to rain. In contrast, the Weather Channel ranks at the top of apps most likely to be used by Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, according to a report today on the mobile market from App Annie. 

The demographic breakdown of the most popular apps is one of the more interesting findings in the report. (Another surprising nugget—millennials are big fans of Walmart’s app. Who’s boring now?) Otherwise the data in the report won’t surprise anyone. Americans spend more than four hours a day on their phones, more time than they spend watching TV. No shocker there. It’s a reminder of why Apple’s App Store is such a profit driver for the company—without all those apps to play with, what would we do with our iPhones?