Once upon a time (like, two years ago!) “apps” were the fried mozzarella sticks you ate while you were waiting for your dinner at Friday’s.  Well, no more. Today apps (for application software) are the hot convenience item, thanks to the explosion of smartphones.  Personally, your humble author has music, movies, maps, job search, games and weather apps clogging up his smartphone – but there are a million more out there.  As the popular tagline  goes, whatever you need to make your daily life a little more convenient – “there’s an app for that!”

According to mobile app developer ShoutEm.com…

• 5 billion apps were downloaded in 2010. By 2013, it will be over 20 billion!
• The average smartphone user spends over 11 hours a month using apps.
• iPhone and Android owners use an average of 15 apps
• Blackberry owners use an average of 8 apps
• The top categories of mobile apps include social networking (Facebook, etc.) with 60 million users and maps with 40 million users.
• The highest rated apps are Angry Birds (game) and Google Maps. Seriously, do you know any Angry Birds addicts? They are CONSUMED!

What do you think? Are you an app freak? Which ones are your favorites? Which ones are a waste of time? Anyway, for more fun app facts, and a look at future trends, check out ShoutEm’s infographic here.