Study: 60% of Windows 8 users rarely touch Metro apps

[nsane.forums]

A new study by Soluto claims that 60 percent of the Windows 8 desktop owners they surveyed launch a Modern app less than one time a day, with the percentage somewhat lower for touchscreen PC users.

Microsoft has promoted Windows 8 as their next major step in the evolution of the PC industry. Part of that next step involves its Modern user interface, which has been designed for use by touchscreen displays, although it can also be accessed by the standard keyboard and mouse controllers. Microsoft has been pushing for developers to create Modern-based apps that can be distributed via the Windows Store section of Windows 8.

Today, a new report claims that the percentage of current Windows 8 owners that use Modern apps extensively is quite low. The report comes from Soluto, which sent a copy of its findings to Neowin ahead of their official launch today. The Israel-based software company collects data from a PC app that helps with finding performance problems. Soluto says that for their report they looked at 10,848 Windows 8 PCs and analyzed 313,142 Modern app launches across 9,634 unique Metro apps.



The report, which refers to Modern apps by their older designation Metro, claims that 60.78 percent of Windows 8 desktop owners launch an app less than once a day, 59.88 percent of laptop users launch Modern apps less than once per day, with that number going down slightly for touchscreen laptop owners to 58.10 percent. The percentage of tablet Windows 8 owners who use a Modern app less than once a day is much lower, at 44.38 percent.



Soluto says that, according to their data, Windows 8 tablet owners, on average, will launch a Modern app 2.71 times a day, while touchscreen laptop owners open apps 2.22 times a day. Non-touchscreen Windows 8 laptop users launch Modern apps 1.51 times a day and desktop users only open those app 1.41 times a day.

In terms of specific Modern Windows 8 apps, Soluto's data shows Microsoft's Communication Apps, which are a collection of the Mail, People, Messaging and Calendar apps, are used the most; 85.84 percent of Windows 8 owners launch those apps at least once a day and they are opened an average of 4.40 times a week. Soluto does add, "Note that launching ANY of the 4 apps (Mail, People, Messaging and Calendar) counts as a use. Therefore, the 4.4 uses per week (on average) of these Apps reflects the aggregated use of all 4 apps."

The report shows that nine of the the top 10 Modern apps that are opened once per day on Windows 8 were all developed by Microsoft, with Netflix being the sole exception in the number seven spot.

Soluto says that no definite conclusions can be generated based on these reports, but it does seem clear that non-touchscreen Windows 8 owners use Modern apps rarely during the day and even a significant portion of touchscreen PC owners don't use Modern apps that much.

The study also has a list of what Soluto claims are the most "engaging" Modern apps released so far for Windows 8. The report states, "By engaging, we mean - among the people who used a certain app, how often they do so on average (we only included apps with a significant user base)." The report claims that Yahoo's Mail app for Windows 8 is the most engaging, with its user base launching the app 26.91 times a week.



Soluto also examined the Yahoo Mail app user base in more detail and found that desktop owners open the app the most, at 25.59 launches a week, with laptop users launching it 24.52 times a week. Oddly, the touchscreen-based PC users of Yahoo Mail opened the app fewer times a week than their regular Windows 8 counterparts. Soluto stated, "Yahoo! Mail is an extremely engaging app showing that Yahoo! Mail users 1) love Yahoo! Mail and 2) get along with the Metro interface."

View: Original Article

[insanedown58]

That I agree on. The only apps that I "touch" is my Mail Apps.

[dMog]

i have windows 8...what is a metro app???... but then i did not buy the computer to use as a touch tablet either,...boot straight to the desktop

[calguyhunk]

60% of Windows 8 users rarely touch Metro apps

Say hello to yet another member of the 60% brigade LOL! :showoff: :D

...what is a metro app???...

It's the ultimate in the dumbing down of the personal computer. :o

Microsoft effectively did with Windoz8 what even Apple (nearly) failed with their 'walled garden' approach to mobile computing :angry:

[dcs18]

It gotta be much more than 60% - why would anybody sane wanna touch all that Metro crap? <_<

[calguyhunk]

It gotta be much more than 60% - why would anybody sane wanna touch all that Metro crap? <_<

Win8 by default 'suggests' Win8 apps to open your pics, vids, music, email, compressed files etc. ;)

90% of the users just click on "Yes", when confronted with a "Wanna use this app to open this type of file from now on?" question rather than say "No" and be confronted with the tedious process of having to D/L & install new program > browse to the location > point to the exe and click on "use this every time from now on". Phew! :eek:

That's why it's only 60% methinks :(

But really, the whole point of people buying a 'Windows' device is for backward compatibility with legacy apps and finding 'familiar' features on the desktop. Nobody's gonna intentionally buy a Windows device to get all flustered because he can't get it to function like a 'normal computer' no more :o

[DKT27]

90% of the users just click on "Yes", when confronted with a "Wanna use this app to open this type of file from now on?" question rather than say "No" and be confronted with the tedious process of having to D/L & install new program > browse to the location > point to the exe and click on "use this every time from now on". Phew! :eek:

On a side note, even though my image files are associated fine Windows Photo Viewer, somehow, right from Windows 7 to 8, I never found how to associate a non-known file to it (Windows Photo Viewer). As Windows Photo Viewer itself has no dedicated file to it.

[dcs18]

On a side note, even though my image files are associated fine Windows Photo Viewer, somehow, right from Windows 7 to 8, I never found how to associate a non-known file to it (Windows Photo Viewer).

It's quite easy, really - which unknown file extension do you want to associate with Windows Photo Viewer? :yes:

As Windows Photo Viewer itself has no dedicated file to it.

Windows Photo Viewer does have 12 file extensions, by default.

[DKT27]

Well, when I installed Windows 7 for the first time, I had an hard time associating gif files (for example) to Windows Photo Viewer. Of course, gif files on Windows Photo Viewer has no use as there is no animation, but just giving an example.

[dcs18]

Yep it's useless to continue having one's .gif associated with Windows Photo Viewer - the .gif is associated though, by default.

[DKT27]

Yep it's useless to continue having one's .gif associated with Windows Photo Viewer - the .gif is associated though, by default.

Not on Windows 7 though, atleast as far as I remember. Still, would like to know the method.

[dcs18]

Still, would like to know the method.

Here are the 12 default associations for Windows Photo Viewer, I mentioned earlier - do ask if you're unable to follow something:-

[DKT27]

Ah, of course. I totally forgot that it's quite easy to associate any file to Windows Photo Viewer on Windows 8.

On Windows 7 (when I used to use it), I had come across a problem where Windows Photo Viewer (or whatever it was called back then), wasn't in the list of the programs you can associate gif files to, nor (as far as I remember) it was possible to do so from Default Programs > Set Default Programs.

So yeah, no problem about gif now on Windows 8. :) IrfanView generally beats WPV quite fine, but I would have associated more files than just gif files, if it allowed me to set the scroll wheel as zoom, rather than changing the image (no mood to press ctrl+scroll everytime).

[MidnightDistortions]

lol i like this survey. The majority won't use modern apps. Haha, i might start handing out burned copies of start menu installers/locking win 8 to the desktop to anyone that has Windows 8. Heck i might just get Win 8 now that i can help up that percentage. :showoff:

[calguyhunk]

So yeah, no problem about gif now on Windows 8. :)

Gifs should be associated with your browser, I think. You get the animations that way. I have FF set as my default for gifs. :D

Start Menu > Default Programs (Right Panel) > Associate a file type or protocol with a program > scroll down to gif > double click > more options > do the needful by browsing to firefox.exe, iexplore.exe etc. Click on "Use this every time from now on" or something to that effect :yes:

[DKT27]

So yeah, no problem about gif now on Windows 8. :)

Gifs should be associated with your browser, I think. You get the animations that way. I have FF set as my default for gifs. :D

Start Menu > Default Programs (Right Panel) > Associate a file type or protocol with a program > scroll down to gif > double click > more options > do the needful by browsing to firefox.exe, iexplore.exe etc. Click on "Use this every time from now on" or something to that effect :yes:

That's what I did. But in the yesteryear, you know, browsers weren't so fast to start up and I personally like to keep my browsing and image viewing separate. Hence, I chose to use IrfanView for it. Having said, IV always f*cks up the gif image for me, always shows old pixels in animated gifs.

[dcs18]

It's better to associate .gif (or any image) with a standalone image viewer rather than a browser - the result speaks for itself.