Outdated apps in the App Store
We regularly notice it in our recommended apps lists at iCulture: after a while we have to dust them again because some apps are no longer updated. Sometimes you can still use those outdated apps just fine, but it also happens that they no longer function properly and lead to complaints. There can be several reasons why developers stop using apps: changing jobs, having a baby, not having enough income or simply not feeling like it anymore are common reasons. In our article about abandoned apps, we explain what to do if your favorite app stops working.
Apple gives developers 90 days to update their outdated apps or risk being banned from the App Store. That includes games that are actually pretty much “finished” and no longer need new functions, while still functioning well on the latest devices. Sometimes with these apps it is very time consuming to build everything from scratch with the latest tools. Pixalate concluded the ‘Abandoned Mobile Apps Report‘ to map how many apps have not been updated in two years.
They discovered some interesting facts:
- 1.5 million of the 5 million mobile apps (or 30%) have not been updated in the past two years
- 1.3 million apps in Apple's and Google's app stores have been updated in the past six months an update
- More updates means more downloads*: of the apps with more than 1 million downloads, 88% have been updated in the last six months
- App categories with the most outdated apps : Education, Reference Books and Games.
- App categories that get the most updates: Financial, Health and Shopping.
The fact that popular apps get more updates is a logical development. If an app hardly gets any downloads anymore, the developer is not motivated to regularly release updates. And vice versa: apps that generate a lot of downloads and a lot of money naturally get more attention from the developer, because it makes sense to keep investing time and effort in them.
Pixtreem & extreem also has 314.000 abandoned apps’ found it. This is 11% of the total. These are apps that haven't been updated in over five years. There are slightly more at Apple's App Store (184,000, 58%) than at the Google Play Store (130,000, 42%). The figures are for the first quarter of 2022 and are therefore fairly recent. Pixalate emphasizes that older apps carry more security risks and bugs. Also, with the outdated app, much less attention has been paid to privacy and outdated apps are less interesting for advertisers. Still, the lack of updates is not always a sign that an app has been abandoned by the developer. Some apps do not require an update for a longer period of time, for example because all new data is obtained from an online database or because the app does not require new functionality.