84 per cent of US smartphone users have downloaded an app in the past two weeks, according to a TUNE report – and 64 per cent within the last week.

By far the most common discovery method for apps on both platforms was searching, with 53 per cent of Android users and 47 per cent of iOS users in the US found the last app they downloaded by searching the app store.

The influence of the app stores themselves isnt as powerful as you might think, with just 10 per cent of Android users, and nine per cent of iOS users, discovering the app due to its presence on a category Top Chart ranking. Featured apps proved more successful on iOS – with nine per cent of downloads coming from the App Stores featured screen, and a further two per cent from being featured within a category – than Android, where just six per cent found the app through it being featured.

Ads drove even fewer downloads, accounting for five per cent on Android and three per cent on iOS, the majority of which in both cases came from another app, rather than an install ad on a social network.