Apigee (www.apigee.com), an API [application programming interface] company, has announced the findings of its "2012 Mobile App Review Survey" of over 500 American mobile app users, aged 18 and older, conducted online by uSamp in October. 

The survey, which was aimed at revealing the expectations and ratings criteria for mobile apps on smartphones and tablets (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy S3), found that fully 96% of American mobile app users say there are frustrations that would lead them to give an app a bad review, including: freezes (76%), crashes (71%), slow responsiveness (59%), heavy battery usage (55%), and too many ads (53%).

Nearly every respondent (98%) stressed that performance matters.  When asked what types of apps performance matters most for, 74% said banking apps, followed by maps (63%), mobile payments (55%), mobile shopping (49%), games (44%) and social media (41%).  When apps don’t perform as expected or advertised, 99% of respondents said they would take action:

° Delete the app immediately (44%);

° Delete the app if it freezes for longer than 30 seconds (38%);

° Tell my friends and colleagues how bad it is (32%);

° Complain about the app on Facebook and Twitter (21%).

And an unforgiving 18% admitted they would even delete an app immediately from their device if it froze for just five seconds. While nearly everyone says they would take action, 27% reported that they would keep the app a little longer if they paid for it.

However, mobile app users do recognize that problems will arise and gave some insight into how companies can respond when that happens.  Overwhelmingly (89%) mobile app users say the number one thing companies can do is fix the problem quickly, followed by easy refunds (65%), provide a customer service number (49%), give the user a personal response (46%) and make a public apology (21%).

Whatever the response, mobile app users say they will continue to search for and discover new apps.  The survey respondents revealed that the top way they find new apps is simply searching app stores periodically (75%).  This was followed closely by in person word-of-mouth (58%), Facebook postings (45%), reading news stories & blogs (26%) and Twitter (14%).

"In the growing app economy, there's a natural Darwinian effect, and only the best apps will survive," says Chet Kapoor, Apigee CEO.  "These survey findings underscore the importance for developers to closely monitor app performance, identify problems quickly and react immediately to resolve them.  Apigee can now help developers achieve this with Apigee Mobile Analytics, a sophisticated mobile app performance and configuration tool that lets developers quickly detect, diagnose and fix problems with their apps running on mobile devices -- in real time."