When phone lines become lifelines

Users of Apple Inc's iOS platform tend to be most interested in downloading applications because the App Store offers diversified applications, covering categories such as gaming, education and books in large quantities.

More than half of iOS system users installed 20-plus applications, while about 30 percent of Android platform users and 27 percent of Windows Phone system users equipped their handsets with a similar number of applications, the survey discovered.

According to a report issued by Baidu Inc, the number of mobile applications in China was close to 500,000 by March 31. Application downloads introduced by mobile search engines increased by almost fivefold year-on-year during the first three months, the Baidu report revealed.

Applications that feature "funny", "unique" and "efficient" characteristics attract the most followers. About 40 percent of Horizon Research respondents said they would install an application if it was interesting and 42 percent of people treasured apps that possessed an efficiency-improving capability.

Books, music, social networking and gaming applications are the top categories that Chinese people want to download, it found. More than half of the respondents said they have book- and music-related apps on their mobile phones.