!
The identification process of most popular weight loss and diet iTunes and Google play apps has previously been detailed in Chapter 4.
iTunes Top Popular Apps
The total number of apps in the iTunes store as a result of the search terms “weight loss” and “diet” was 1000 apps. 500 apps resulted from the search term “weight loss” and 500 apps resulted from the search term “diet”. However, as mentioned previously in this research, the restriction of the available resources of this study has required limiting the number of apps included in the analysis. Thus, this study has only focused on the top 30 popular apps resulted from each term that followed specific inclusion criteria.
The apps were collected from the iTunes store on 24 June 2014 by using the search term “weight loss”. The total number of apps resulted from the search term “weight loss” were 500 apps. The most popular apps from the Australian iTunes App store were collected on 25 June 2014 from iTunes store. The top 30 popular apps that resulted from the search term “weight loss” were only considered to examine the specific inclusion criteria (App language is English, Free app, related to weight loss and diet apps, consumer oriented app and high rating app) (See Chapter 4). The apps that met the previous inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. Otherwise, the app has excluded (see Appendix 1).
On 24 June 2014, the apps were collected from the iTunes store by using the search term “diet”. The total number of apps resulted from the search term “diet” were 500 apps. The most popular apps for Australian iTunes App store were collected on 25 June 2014. The top 30 popular apps that resulted from the search term “diet” were only considered to study the aforementioned inclusion criteria (see Appendix 2). The apps that met the inclusion criteria has analysed and other have excluded.
Although there top 30 apps resulted from the search term “weight loss” (see Appendix 1), only 12 apps has met the inclusion criteria of this study and hence they have included in the analysis (see table 4.1 in Chapter 4). Two of the top 30 popular apps did not have any stars rating in the Australian iTunes Store and hence excluded.
The rest of the 16 apps have excluded, as they did not meet one or more of the inclusion criteria of this study. While grey rows in Table 4.1 in Chapter 4 demonstrated the apps that have been excluded from the study, white rows demonstrated the apps that are included in the study.
Likewise, the top 30 popular apps from the search term “diet” were identified. 19 apps have been included in the analysis as they met the inclusion criteria for this study. However, 11 apps were excluded, as they did not meet one or more of the inclusion criteria. The grey rows in Table 4.2 in Chapter 4 presented the apps that have been excluded from the study and the white rows presented the apps that are included in the study.
Repeated iTunes Apps that Resulted From the Search Terms “Weight Loss” And “Diet”
Repeated apps are the apps that appeared in the apps’ results page even though different search terms have been used. In the iTunes store, repeated apps were present in the search for weight loss apps and appeared again in the search for diet apps. iTunes repeated apps resulted from the search terms “diet” and “weight loss” are presented in the table 4.3 in Chapter 4.
The total number of iTunes’ most popular apps that resulted from both search terms, and which met the inclusion criteria, was 31 apps. However, the number of apps was reduced from 31 to 25, as there were six repeated apps that met the inclusion criteria. This reduction is necessary to overcome the duplication of apps. The rest of the repeated apps did not meet the inclusion criteria. The six repeated apps were as follow:
1. My Diet Coach – Weight Loss for Women by InspiredApps,
2. Jillian Michaels Slim-Down: Weight Loss, Diet, & Exercise Solution by
EveryDay Health Inc.,
3. Walk with Map My Walk- GPS Walking, Jogging, Running, Workout
Tracking for Diet Weight Loss by MapMyFitness, Inc.,
4. Weight Loss Hypnosis- Free Eat the Best Food, Lose Belly Fat Fast… by Surf
City Apps LLC,
6. Happy Scale: Simple Weight Loss Tracker, Moving Average Tracking Graph,
Daily Smooth Goal Watcher's Progress Monitor, Hacker's Diet Log… by Front
Pocket Software LLC.
Included iTunes Apps
A total of 25 out of the possible 60 Australian iTunes’ most popular apps that resulted from the search terms “weight loss”!and “diet”!are included in the analysis (see the white rows in the table in Appendix 8).
Excluded iTunes Apps
A total of 29 out of the possible 60 Australian iTunes’ most popular apps that
resulted from the search terms “weight loss”! and “diet” were excluded from the
analysis. In addition, six apps were excluded because of duplication within the two search terms (see grey rows in the table in Appendix 8).
Google Play Top Popular Apps
Developed Scale for Measuring Google Play Apps Popularity
A scale was developed to identify the most popular Google Play apps as Google Play, unlike iTunes, does not rank apps according to their popularity. Instead, Google Play provides the total number of downloads for each app in ranges such as 100-500, 500-1000 and so on. All of the possible number ranges of downloads in Google Play
have been identified (Appendix 5). !
To find the most popular apps in the Google Play store, all apps that resulted
from the search terms “weight loss”!and “diet”!have been typed in rows in two separate
Excel spread sheets in the same order as the apps appeared in the store. Next, the
frequency of downloads that that Google Play store provide for each of the 250 weight
loss apps and the 250 diet apps resulting from the search have been gathered and typed in another column. Utilising the Excel function =COUNTIF, allows counting the number of apps within a certain download range. The next step was to manually classify and arrange the apps based on their frequency of downloads. The 30 most popular apps are those that have been downloaded the most. Thus, to identify the 30 most popular apps in the Google Play store, a download range scale for measuring the download popularity of apps has been developed.
As a result of the developed scale and due to the selected apps having high downloads, the most popular apps categories were expanded in both search terms. To illustrate, the number of the most popular apps that resulted from the search term
“weight loss”!is 35 apps and not 30 apps (Appendix 6). Also, the diet most popular apps
have been extended to 32 apps (Appendix 7). It was not possible to more accurately choose the 30 most popular apps, as there were a number of apps that had the same range of download. Choosing some of these apps and disregarding others with the same range of downloads, would have caused an inconsistency. Thus, all of the most popular apps located in the same range of downloads have been included in the analysis.
The Google Play “weight loss” apps that were included in this study came from the following download ranges: One app was located in the range of 10,000,000- 50,000,000; a second app was located in the range of 5,000,000 - 10,000,000; four additional apps were in the 1,000,000-5,000,000 category; Seven apps were located within the range of 500,000-1,000,000; and 22 apps were located within 100,000- 500,000 range. The total number of these apps was 35. None of the apps located in the range of 100,000-500,000 were excluded as all had the same range of downloads. For this reason, the number of the most popular apps from the Google Play store was expanded from 30 to 35 apps. For this reason, the top 30 popular “weight loss” apps groups from the Google Play store have been expanded. Also, the “diet” top popular apps have been extended to 32 apps for the same reason. !
The total number of apps from the Google Play store, as a result of the search terms
“weight loss”!and “diet”, was 500. However, the restriction of the available resources of
this study forced this research to limit the number of apps included in the analysis. Thus, this study only focused on the 30 most popular Google Play apps.
Apps were collected from the Google Play store between 26 and 30 June 2014 by using the search term “weight loss”. The total number of apps that resulted from the
search term “weight loss”!was 250 (Appendix 3). The download popularity of Google
Play apps was identified by using the developed scale for measuring the download popularity. The total number of the most popular apps, as a result of the search term “weight loss”, was 35. The result was 35 not 30 apps, as mentioned previously, because Google Play does not arrange apps in accordance with their downloads popularity like iTunes. Instead they provide the number of downloads in ranges. Only the 35 most
popular apps were considered for inclusion. The grey rows in Table 4.4 in Chapter 4 present the apps that were excluded from this study and white ones show the apps that were included in this study, based on the aforementioned criteria.
Apps were collected from the Google Play store on 1 July 2014 by using the
search term “diet”. The total number of apps that resulted from the search term “diet”!
was 250 (Appendix 4). The developed scale for measuring the download popularity was utilised to identify the most downloaded Google Play apps. The total number of most
popular apps resulting from the search term!“diet” was 32. The result of 32 not 30 apps,
as planned, was because Google Play does not rank their apps based on downloads popularity,. Identifying the most popular apps depends on the developed scale of downloads popularity. Only the 32 most popular apps, out of the possible 250, were considered for inclusion. Grey rows in Table 4.5 in Chapter 4 present the apps that were excluded from the study and white rows present the apps that have been included in this study, based on the aforementioned criteria.
The total number of the most popular apps, as a result of the search terms
“weight loss”!and “diet”, were 67. However, of the 35 most popular apps resulting from
the search term “weight loss”, only 19 apps met the inclusion criteria of this study. The remaining 16 apps did not meet one or more of the inclusion criteria for this study and therefore were excluded.
From the 32 most popular apps resulting from the search term!“Diet”, only 10
apps met the inclusion criteria for this study. The remaining 22 apps did not meet one or more of the inclusion criteria for this study and therefore were excluded.
Repeated Google Play Apps That Resulted From the Search Terms “Weight Loss” And “Diet”
Repeated apps are apps that appeared in the apps’!results page even though different search terms had been used. In this case, repeated apps were the apps that appeared in the weight loss search and appeared again under the diet search. There were 6 apps repeated out of the 67 apps. Table 4.6 in Chapter 4 has demonstrated these repeated apps.
As result of this repetition, the number of apps was reduced from 29 to 26 as three of those apps met the inclusion criteria namely (1) Diet Assistant - Weight Loss by
Alportela Labs, (2) My Diet Coach - Weight Loss by InspiredApps (A.L) LTD, and (3)
Diet Point ·!Weight Loss by DietPoint Ltd. The rest of the repeated apps did not meet
the inclusion criteria of this study and thus were excluded early.
Included Apps
The total number of the Australian Google Play most popular apps that resulted
from the search terms “weight loss”!and “diet”!that were included in the analysis was 26
out of a possible 67 apps (see white rows in the table in appendix 10).
Excluded Apps
The total number of Google Play most popular apps that resulted from the
search terms “weight loss”!and “diet”!that were excluded from the analysis was 38 out
of a possible 67 apps. Three other apps were excluded because of duplication (see grey rows in the table appendix 10).
Identifying iTunes and Google Play apps resulted in three additional initial findings (see Chapter 4, section 4.4). All of these initial findings have indicated that the
iTunes and Google Play search algorithm was biased towards apps titles keywords. Figure 8.1 demonstrates the relationship between these three initial findings of Chapter one and initial finding 1 and 2 of Chapter 6 (see Chapter 6, section 6.5).
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R. O2: Build A Framework For Evaluating The Identified Apps And