A third of European smartphone owners use apps daily or more, according to the Mobile App Life Cycle report from Forrester Research. 17 per cent are using apps several times a day, the research found, with social networking apps proving most popular, accessed daily by 57 per cent of app users. 48 per cent, meanwhile, use news apps on a daily basis, and 69 per cent use finance and banking apps at least weekly.

Uptake of apps has increased hugely over the past two years – in 2010, 16 per cent of European smartphone owners downloaded at least one app a month. That figure is now 42 per cent. The US has also grown, from 33 per cent to 44 per cent, but much less dramatically.

iOS owners are more likely to be regular app users, with 40 per cent accessing them daily, than Android users, at only 25 per cent. And, with the initial wave of app stores nearly four years old, Forrester predicts that the second wave of apps will soon be upon us.

“We believe the market is poised for a second wave of consumer apps that are more personalised and contextual,” said Forrester mobile analyst Thomas Husson in a blog post. “There is still a lot of room to improve the discoverability and sharing of apps. For example, locally relevant content and monetisation options are often missing. Adding social discovery, personalization, and recommendation features are key to improving the user experience.”