The Developers Alliance recently conducted a survey of 2,000 EU-based Android Users. The results show that Android users download and use a multitude of apps rather than just using a few exclusively. Having one app on their device, even a pre-loaded app, does not stop them from downloading and using a similar app that does a similar function. In all but two categories, most users who downloaded the top app in that category also downloaded a different app in the same category.
Users have the opportunity to customize their device and use the apps they prefer most — and they do, with 90% reporting making changes to the apps on the home-screen of their device from when they bought it.
For this reason, most users (74%, in fact) prefer having pre-loaded apps so their device works straight out of the box. If they want to download and use a specific app, they will. Android users frequently use more than one app in each function category. In almost every category, those who use the top app in that category (say, Amazon for shopping) will also use another app for the same function.
You can read about usage behavior and see category breakdowns in our newly released report at this link.
