Research Finds Over 1.5 Million 'Abandoned' Mobile Apps (infoq.com) 46
ellithligraw writes: Analytics company Pixalate found that there are over 1.5 million abandoned iOS and Android apps. This analysis comes after Apple's announcement of changes to their App Store for abandoned apps, prompting a discussion on the Web.
"Pixalate claims they crawled the App Store and Play Store to analyze all apps available for download based on their last update to determine their degree of 'abandonment,'" reports InfoQ. "Based on the previous definitions, Pixalate found over 650k iOS apps and about 870k Android apps to qualify as abandoned apps (haven't been updated in over two years). Of those, just about 180k iOS apps and 130k Android apps qualify as super-abandoned (haven't been updated in at least five years)." Note that according to Statista there are 4 million iOS apps, and 3 million Android apps available.
"Pixalate claims they crawled the App Store and Play Store to analyze all apps available for download based on their last update to determine their degree of 'abandonment,'" reports InfoQ. "Based on the previous definitions, Pixalate found over 650k iOS apps and about 870k Android apps to qualify as abandoned apps (haven't been updated in over two years). Of those, just about 180k iOS apps and 130k Android apps qualify as super-abandoned (haven't been updated in at least five years)." Note that according to Statista there are 4 million iOS apps, and 3 million Android apps available.
What's the obsession with updating? (Score:5, Insightful)
Some programs just work. They just do everything one needs, have no significant bugs, and "adding features" would mean introducing clutter to the detriment of the base functionality. They don't need updates.
And often apps are "updated" with the change is done against the users' will, and making them much worse.
What's with the obsession about updates? Sure if it's a security vulnerability, yeah, updates are desirable. But if I need a diffuse-light flashlight, an app that fills the display with pure white at max brightness really doesn't need any updates.
Good question (Score:2, Interesting)
There are probably a few more reasons, like apple's corporate motives.
"The industry" does have a general obsession with "the new". Developers tend to be neophiles (whereas sysadmins tend to dislike change unless it has a clear upside for them), and the security bunch goes around insisting that everyone should "update" because that's "safer", even though this needn't be the case at all. For new versions often have more new features, and therefore new undiscovered bugs, than they offer in bug patches and sec
Re:What's the obsession with updating? (Score:5, Insightful)
Checking the last updated date on them does seem like a fairly pathetic attempt at "research." What would be more useful is if they checked how many of them still worked or not, and how many of them still have valid support contact info.
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Quite.
I have an app in the app store originally published in 2009.
Still works, contact info still valid :-)
updating is the reason for abandonware (Score:2)
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Android is even worse. Not only does Google's software constantly push upgrades that break stuff that used to work, but they even drop support for old versions of Android and expect me to re-buy all my hardware every few years too. It is utter bullshit.
Many if not most apps from Gingerbread, when Android became worth a fuck, still work today.
I wrote a nice app for my Android 5 tablet, but I now don't DARE update my dev toolchain or else I'll lose all ability to make app changes for my own software on my tablet.
The dev tools literally let you build for old versions. You can literally choose which old versions to install the development support files for.
Re:updating is the reason for abandonware (Score:4, Interesting)
Many if not most apps from Gingerbread, when Android became worth a fuck, still work today.
The dev tools literally let you build for old versions. You can literally choose which old versions to install the development support files for.
Apps may work and you can possibly build older version but you absolutely can't publish them on Google Play, because things are being changed and deprecated at an alarming rate.
I am a hobby developer for a very small app for Android and I can tell you Google Play and the Android ecosystem is a complete development nightmare. You would think that you could code your app for a specific Android version and then make some small updates once in a while. No it's basically a full time development job. You have to constantly update and re-program your app because Google is constantly deprecating and requiring uneccesary updates.
The story goes like this: Google notifies you of some necessary changes for you app or you want to update the app with minor changes. Google Play policy says you have to use at least version x.y of some Google library for any new updates. You update to that library but when you compile you get an error that another library has to be updated bcause of that x.y version. You update that library also and then you get another error that you need to update the Android build x.y version to work with those libraries, e.t.c and then then some interface you are using throughout your app has been deprecated and you have to basically re-create your app from the ground up to use that new interface, finally after what was supposed to be a 10 minute minor fix has turned into a two weeks coding session, but you finally can publish the app. The next week you get an email for a new deprecation and the horror continues.
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Apps may work and you can possibly build older version but you absolutely can't publish them on Google Play, because things are being changed and deprecated at an alarming rate.
I can easily believe that. But at least you can sideload, put your apps on alternate app stores, etc. You're not locked out of development on old apps, only distribution if you don't update them. That is still irritating, granted. But at least you have options.
You would think that you could code your app for a specific Android version and then make some small updates once in a while. No it's basically a full time development job. You have to constantly update and re-program your app because Google is constantly deprecating and requiring uneccesary updates.
OK, but everyone does this, including Apple. Nobody leaves their APIs alone. Even old Windows software eventually has to be updated to work on newer Windows. I have a bunch of software that doesn't work correctly on newer Windows versions, some of whi
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Deprecated, or removed? You can keep using deprecated stuff.
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You can use it but you can't publish it to your users, which kinda defeats the point.
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For some apps that may well be true, but for most applications that I use, any update would be undesired, unless it was needed to fix a security problem. And for simple applications that's not usually the case.
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Re:What's the obsession with updating? (Score:5, Insightful)
I got a help request from our IT people. They were developing a complicated software, and they were unable to solve a computational geometry issue. I easily worked out the solution and I also sent them a piece of code solving the problem. My solution used an algorithm from the ACM library, that has been published around 1985. They replied to me that the algorithm was too old, and that I had to provide a solution based upon a more recent algorithm.
I replied to them that, whenever they use the C library function that calculates a vector norm in L2, they are using an algorithm that is at least 2,500 years old. I got no more complaints, and my solution was accepted.
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My wife wrote a paper in musicology, and cited references. The editor rejected it because the references were too old (she cited the original source). She replaced that reference with a newer one, and the paper was accepted. The newer reference cited the same source that her original paper did.
It's not just the tech folks with this kind of idiocy.
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Good story.
"the algorithm was too old, and that I had to provide a solution based upon a more recent algorithm"
So aside from the personal triumph, this seems like a really teachable moment. I suppose it's ridiculously optimistic to hope that someone, somewhere on the other end of that request maybe used that as an object lesson that algorithms don't fucking age?
Sure, they can sometimes be refined over time but there's nothing INHERENTLY better with code written last year, than with a^2+b^2=c^2.
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But if I need a diffuse-light flashlight, an app that fills the display with pure white at max brightness really doesn't need any updates.
Sure it does. When you use that piece of software it needs to send that data back to some nebulous corporation who will then target you with an ad for light bulbs.
That little bit wasn't in the first release and is only available in the updated version of the software.
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Agreed it's a terrible metric of "abandonment". The solitaire app on my phone updates once in a blue moon, yet gets used pretty much every day. I don't care if the developers are working on it or not - it's fine as it is. Sure, there are some things that could be better, but it's still fine as it is.
In fairness, if apps aren't getting updated in 5 years, then they may not really work properly on later devices (especially in Android world). Permissions and workflows have changed a bit over the years, so more
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There's the part where commercial developers push absolute junk software out the door and updates are more or less necessary to make the software work at all, including putting missing functionality in that was left out due to the rush to ship.
Then there's the part where commercial developers need the update cycle to remain business relevant and maintain cash flow through re-purchases and support contracts. Then there's the idea that they need it for general marketing buzz and visibility.
And then you have
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It's not just IT. (See my longer post above.) Perhaps it's worse in IT for reasons that you describe, but there seems to be a general social bias against older tech. Perhaps it goes back to the car companies pushing out a new model every year, perhaps it goes back to the fashion designers pushing a new "in" style.
All they want to do is sell you more stuff (Score:2)
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Because after a while they stop working on more modern handsets due to API or UI changes. Have bought multiple applications years ago that I cannot use anymore.
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I have made one single app for Android and it's an app to calculate radiated power from an antenna (ERP) given a number of factors that impacts the output power from the transmitter.
There isn't much change needed to that app for many years if any, but it would be a very useful app for anyone working with radio transmitters and repeaters.
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Some programs just work. They just do everything one needs, have no significant bugs, and "adding features" would mean introducing clutter to the detriment of the base functionality. They don't need updates.
True but even without functional change most apps need updates to continue working with Android or iOS changes. If the app uses cloud storage then almost certainly it is not working correctly without an update in the last two or three years.
I recently acquired an iOS device after leaving the platform about 8 years ago. I checked out my old apps and I would say it is fair comment that anything not updated in two or three years is likely cast adrift by the dev.
I have to ask: why are the operating platform
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Some programs just work.
And some people assume some programs just work when they abandon them only for them to break down the line due to an OS change.
Android and iOS are not Windows or Linux. They do not focus on backwards compatibility. In fact a large portion of these abandoned apps would no longer work simply due to changes in the way the OS requires permission requests (which basically every app does these days).
What's with the obsession about updates?
Typically the obsession is that some people actually want their apps to ... just work.
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Ditto, but the problem is support and security holes. :( Also, I hate it when these old apps don't work anymore on newer OSes. :(
Delete (Score:1)
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These what? Zero-value comments the author didn't care enough about to even write a complete sentence? Yes, please.
Complete (Score:5, Insightful)
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That works well when you're coding for a stable platform. iOS and Android are not that. Every OS update introduces some breaking changes due to the constant moving target of how the OSes manage everything from sensors, to permissions or storage.
This isn't Windows or Linux which puts an emphasis on changes not breaking software.
As long as they are not vulnerable (Score:4, Insightful)
It's the "store" that's the problem (Score:4, Interesting)
Consider how many millions of pieces of abandonware exist on physical media right now. Consumer software from the 70s through today, on tapes, cassettes, disks, cartridges, CDs, DVDs, Microdrive tapes, bubble memories, {...}. This software is harming nobody, apart from taking up some space in peoples' attics. People who want to use it can disinter the media and run the software (or more likely go to an archive where they can download it ready-packed for use in an emulator).
The app store owners essentially don't want these apps on their store shelves because, besides the security aspects, these apps dilute paid placement of other apps in the same category. So they want them off the shelf. Fine. The problem is that there is then no way for users to get at these old apps, which is a Big Problem for apps that control hardware appliances. This is why I won't buy a piece of hardware that totally relies on an app for its UI - I assume that the app is going to be discontinued. I only buy appliances that have an on-device hardware UI.
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. This is why I won't buy a piece of hardware that totally relies on an app for its UI - I assume that the app is going to be discontinued. I only buy appliances that have an on-device hardware UI.
that's a really good comment about appliances with app UI. that's why i am not buying an iPad on wheels (Tesla).. it is designed to be a shopping cart so that you can shop from within the car.. and they can track you everywhere.. Elon will sell the data to his friend Peter at Palantir...
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MS bring back Windows Phone (Score:1)
Now that windows on arm is faster, and arms are faster with more ram. Windows Mobile on Windows 11 core, would be viable and great.
Now if only MS made a download rom and flash any samsung/nokia/sony phone into a windows phone.
Hell, bring back your own Windows mobile again via LG or something.
WM wasnt bad. And if WM can also run android apps sidebyside then even better.
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And if WM can also run android apps sidebyside then even better.
That would be called "an Android phone" because there will never be any compelling reason for anyone to write software for the WM part of it. The principal reason WinMo died is because there simply isn't a way to build critical mass of developers in a third mobile ecosystem.
Somewhat unfair (Score:2)
My apps have gone over 2 years without an update because they don't need updated. The only crash reports I get anymore come from Google's ad library which I can't do anything about except try to upgrade them once in a while.
Sometimes APIs change (Score:3)
So yeah, sometimes programs need to be updated as the underlying system evolves.
One of my favorite iPad apps... Scrabble. (Score:2)
So I've had the iOS official "Scrabble" app for a long time. It's design is simply great, and it works perfectly.
A while back the developer and the publisher terminated their agreement, and the app was effectively abandoned. It was pulled from the App store. ...BUT... because I owned the app, it is still available to re-download at any time, on device changes or additions.
I'm concerned that this "abandoned", but fully functional application will vanish. Now, to be clear, I have gotten a shit-ton more enjoym
Old != Abandoned (Score:2)
Just another example of how the choice of words was deliberatley chosen to bias the reader's opinion.
I'm going to check back in on this report next year to see if it's been abandonded.