US cellphone owners are much more likely to use the devices to take pictures or send text messages than they are to run applications, according to a report released on September 14.
Thirty-five percent of US adults have applications on their mobile phones but only 24 percent actually use the programmes, according to the report from the Pew Research Centre's Internet and American Life Project.
Eleven percent of cellphone owners, mostly older users, are not sure if their device is equipped with applications, commonly known as "apps."
The Pew report found that among US adults, app use ranks well below using a mobile phone for other activities.
Seventy-six percent of cellphone owners take pictures on their phones, 72 percent send or receive text messages and 38 percent use their phone to access the Internet, the report said.
Thirty-four percent play games, send or receive emails or record a video while 33 percent use the device to play music.
Twenty-nine percent of cellphone owners have downloaded apps to their phone and 13 percent have paid to download apps, according to the report.
"An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cellphone users, particularly men and young adults," said Kristen Purcell, associate director for research at the Pew Internet Project and co-author of the report.
"Still, it is clear that this is the early stage of adoption when many cell owners do not know what their phone can do," Purcell said. "The apps market seems somewhat ahead of a majority of adult cellphone users."
The findings come from a Pew nation-wide telephone survey of adult cellphone owners and a survey of recent apps downloaders by The Nielsen Company.
Roger Entner, co-author of the report and head of research and insights for telecom practice at Nielsen, said the findings show "a widening embrace of all kinds of apps by a widening population."
"This is a pretty remarkable tech-adoption story, if you consider that there was no apps culture until two years ago," Entner said.
The Nielsen survey found that games were the most popular apps, followed by music, food and entertainment, news and weather, social networking and maps and navigation.