Can Your Apps Define You? Research Says Yes, Your "Appitype" Is Real

You can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear, the books they read, the purse they carry... and the apps they download on their smartphone? Welcome to the 21st century, where you no longer have a personality but an "appitype," and all you need to truly know your friend, a family member, your lover is to know how they use their smartphones, according to a just-released study from Nokia. If you're a Midwesterner in the U.S., for example, you're well connected. Smartphone users in the middle of America, the study found, used social networking apps the most (49 percent), with 15 percent saying that they could not live without them. In the Western region of the United States, 18 percent used music apps, more than in any other region. In India, if you have less than 30 apps on your phone and/or have more social-focused apps than business-oriented ones downloaded, consider yourself in the small minority. A smartphone in Brazil, meanwhile, shows the country likes to party, with 42 percent of Brazilians downloading music related apps like ringtones, track recognition, and music magazines above all else. Germans found functional apps such as alarm clocks and flashlight (29 percent) the most appealing, while the Brits are overall more skeptical about apps in general. Those are just some of the app behaviors that are the secret to determining someone's personality, according to Professor Trevor Pinch of Cornell University. Professor Pinch led the study, commissioned by Nokia, that analyzed behavior of more than 5,200 smartphone users in 10 countries, including India, Singapore, China, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Participants were asked to take a short survey on Nokia's website that asked how they used their apps and what kinds of apps they had on their phone. At the survey's end, the program generates what Nokia calls an "Appitype," one of six different labels - The Appthusiast, The Livewire, The Creator, The Connector (social), The Appcentric (smartphone is main commuting device), and The Apprentice (not yet involved in apps but is learning) - that sum up the person's behavior around apps. The full results were gathered and analyzed by Professor Pinch, the lead sociologist and professor of science and technology studies at Cornell. "With so many apps available, people can pick the ones most relevant to them," Pinch said. "The intimacy we share with our phones stamps our personality onto them. They know our tastes, our needs and even our secrets. If you ever want to really know someone, take a look at their apps - you may be in for a surprise!" Overall, the study found that games (38 percent), social networking (35 percent) and music (29 percent) were the most downloaded apps, but the order switched to social networking (31 percent), games (29 percent) and utilities (25 percent) when it came to the most used apps. Not surprisingly, more than any other nationality, the Chinese downloaded news and information apps the most often, at 30 percent. South Africans use more social apps than their fellow world citizens in Brazil and India, while a near majority of Singaporeans, 49 percent, use their phones most to play games on-the-go. In Italy, almost a third (28 percent) of smartphone users there would rather opt for a travel app, ditching the heavy guidebooks to traverse the beautiful landscape, we suppose.

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Can Your Apps Define You? Research Says Yes, Your "Appitype" Is Real

Katie Kindelan

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Katie Kindelan