Mobile phone app stores Smartphone apps

You've probably heard the word 'apps' before, especially if you're in the market for a smartphone.

Apps are essentially pieces of software that directly benefit the user and broaden the functionality of your mobile phone, in essence they are exactly the same as the computer programs that you use on a PC.

For example, if you have a PC, you probably have programs such as Microsoft Word, Paint, and Notepad; mobile phone apps work in the same way these do.

The term 'app' itself is just a shortened version of 'application software'.

How do I get mobile phone apps?

The first thing to understand about apps is that they're only available for certain handsets, usually those that fall under the smartphone category.

The rise of mobile phone apps, has been powered by the extra processing power of smartphones and their use of complete operating systems.

Each brand of operating system, namely the iPhone iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone 7 and Nokia's Symbian, has its own dedicated online marketplace.

Some, like the Android Market and Apple App Store, allow you to search and download apps from your home computer straight to your phone.

Read our mobile phone reviews of the latest smartphones.

What can mobile phone apps do?

If you haven't browsed an app store, you may be surprised at the volume and ingenuity of what's on offer.

Apps can help with business, your social life, travel, communication and much more.

There are apps to monitor your expenses, identify flowers and give you first aid advice, as well as full documentation suites that let you view and edit spreadsheets and Word documents.

Video games also generally fall under the 'app' category and, as the smartphone market grows, more and more of the major video game companies are beginning to develop titles purely for smartphone operating systems.

The great thing about apps is that you only have to download what you need personally, so you can customise your phone to suit your individual needs.

Another good thing about apps is the relatively low cost. A vast majority of apps are either free or very cheap, and many come with a free trial version.

Apps: The negatives

It may seem obvious, but not all apps will work with all phones - it depends on what operating system your phone runs.

For example, iPhone apps will not work on an Android phone. However, many app developers release different versions of their apps for different operating systems. So you'll be able to find the official Facebook or Yahoo! Mail app on both iPhone and Android app stores.

The other drawback is that apps take-up space on your phone, so there is only a limited amount of apps you can have.

Also, if you are running many apps at the same time, this can slow your phone down and battery power can suffer significantly.

There are a small minority of apps that may cause problems with your phone. These apps aren't usually malicious, but simply run into conflicts with different versions of an operating system. This is more of a problem for Android smartphones than anything else, because many different manufacturers develop their own versions of the Android OS.

A very small minority of apps may pose a security risk to your smartphone, because they contain malicious software. This very rarely happens and is more of a problem on Android devices than any others.

You can easily avoid such problems by reading reviews of apps before downloading them, and if someone says it has badly affected their phone, stay well away.

Unhappy with a paid for app?

The Android Market gives you 15 minutes from the moment an app starts downloading to change your mind and receive a full refund.

The refund application process is simple. Many of the popular game apps download quickly, so there may be time to have a quick play and get a refund if you don’t like it.

However, apps with a large file size may take longer than 15 minutes to download, in which case you won’t be able to apply for a refund. And some apps are only compatible certain Android devices, so before purchasing, check that the app will be compatible with your operating system and device.

To apply for a refund within 15 minutes, access ‘my apps’ via the Android Marketplace, open the app you want refunded and select ‘refund’.

Apple’s policy is not to refund app purchases unless they are faulty.

As part of a Which? investigation into downloads, we requested a refund from Apple for an app we were unhappy with a few minutes after we’d downloaded it. However, true to the policy we were not granted a refund.

If there is a genuine problem with an app you can report it to Apple using the ‘report a problem link’ related to the app on your iPhone or in iTunes.