Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Hikes and routes
The trail I want isn't in the app
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 37 reviews, in 12 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
Downloaded maps won't open without signal
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 37 reviews, in 11 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
Tracked distance is way off
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 33 reviews, in 11 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
Tracking stops in the middle of a hike
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 33 reviews, in 12 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
An Apple Watch app
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 30 reviews, in 12 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
Planned routes don't follow the trails
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 6 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
Maps on the CarPlay screen
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 22 reviews, in 6 of 26 apps.
How we count
The sample is up to 500 recent App Store reviews for each of about 100 popular apps per category. We look for each need across all of the category’s reviews and check a random sample of matches by hand: at least 80% are correct.
“Pain” is a rough score from 1 to 10: half comes from the share of the category’s reviews that mention it, 30% from how many such reviews there are in total, 20% from the share of apps where it comes up. It is not search demand and not market size.
In words: 1–3 mild · 4–6 noticeable · 7–8 strong · 9–10 acute.