Inspired by this post Dwight Silverman wrote last week on TechBlog, I thought I'd showcase the iPhone apps I use every single day on my device.
The iPhone 4 ships with several apps already preinstalled. These first-party apps cover basics like an e-mail client, web browser, calculator, camera, etc. As I evaluated my daily usage, I find there are 8 first-party apps I use every single day. They are Mail, Safari, Phone, Messages, Calendar, Camera, App Store, & Photos.
Currently I have 425 third-party apps in my iTunes Library. Of those 425, I have 219 installed on my iPhone 4. So what of those other 206 apps? Well, some are iPad apps, others are iPhone apps I downloaded but decided I no longer needed on my actual device each day. With 219 third-party apps installed on my phone, you'd think I'd use many of them every day, right? Well, as I reflected on my actual usage, I found there were only 7 that I used each and every day.
Below I'm going to talk about those 7 apps, but I'm also going to list the apps that I find I use at least once a week, and those I use at least once a month. The number of weekly use apps includes 11 more on the list, and the monthly use apps add 20 more. As I did this review process, I was somewhat surprised that in any given month, there are only 38 of my installed 219 apps (17%) that I'll definitely use. The remaining 181 apps are the "just in case" apps, or ones that I think could be useful if the correct situation comes up.
Daily Use Apps
Foursquare
I caught the Foursquare bug just before I went to South By Southwest Interactive in Austin this past March. Now I check in everywhere go. App Store link here.
Gowalla
Like Foursquare, but with a better design. I especially like Gowalla's Passport feature, where you get a stamp for each venue you visit. This was the real reason I bought an international data plan when I traveled to Paris earlier this year: I wanted to keep track of all the places I visited in the city on my Gowalla passport. App Store link here.
This is the app that evolved from the earlier Tweetie app. This is how I post all of my status updates, which also get syndicated to Facebook via Friendfeed. App Store link here.
Perhaps the killer app for the iPhone. I've been a daily Facebook user since Cinco De Mayo 2004, and still love the service today. My social graph on Facebook is almost double that of Twitter, too, so I still do most of information sharing & status reading via this app. App Store link here.
Beejive IM
This instant messaging app has mostly replaced SMS for daily communication with my closest friends. App Store link here.
Remember The Milk
An essential element in my productivity package, coupled with Gmail, Google Calendar, & Google Docs. App Store link here.
Weightbot
I now have two years of daily weight entries entered in this app. App Store link here.
So that shows you which apps truly get used every single day on my iPhone. They're heavy on the social networking, location based services, and communication, but that kind of aligns with my interests.
Now as for the other apps which get launched on at least a weekly or monthly basis, I have a listing for each category below.
Weekly Apps
USAA
Gas Cubby
SplashID
Groceries
Speed Test
Flickr
Simplenote
Boxcar
Voice Central
Kindle
Sportacular
Monthly Apps
CameraBag
Chase
American Express
Bank of America
ING Direct
Square
Pandora
Shazam
Remote
WWOZ New Orleans Jazz
AT&T myWireless
AppBox Pro
iStat
reQall
The Weather Channel
DVR Remote
Peggle
Wikiamo
SEC Mobile
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