According to Fox, about 10 percent of U.S. adults who have cell phones – and nearly every adult in the country has one these days – had registered to use a mobile health app, a number nearly unchanged from a year ago. Many, Fox told the Sun, used the app only once, if they even tried it at all.

Granted, not every mobile phone user has a smartphone that can run third-party apps, but smartphone adoption continues to grow, so it might seem surprising that interest in health apps has reached a plateau at least for now. I, for one, was not surprised.

I’ve been saying for quite some time that direct-to-consumer health apps have limited appeal as long as they’re made for the same young, techie types who design them. And apparently I am not alone.

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