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In 2011, a study analyzed the content of 47 smoking cessation apps in the Apple App Store and found most of them were not evidence-based, particularly the most popular ones. Very few provided information about nicotine replacement or other effective quitting methods [16]. In addition, harmful prosmoking apps have found their way onto the market. In a recent paper, we identified 107 prosmoking apps; 42 were from the Android Market and downloaded by an average of 11 million users [1]. Some of those apps claim they can help people quit smoking [1]. Therefore, efforts are needed to bring evidence-based smoking cessation materials into this new medium.

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Very little is known about app users or the ability of app stores to reach smokers. Thus, before examining the effectiveness of smoking cessation apps, we must know as much as we can about their potential users.

Although the ownership of Android OS devices is twice that of Apple devices, the uptake of this study app was more than 2 times less in the Android Market over the 12-month period. Another study reported a low uptake of Android apps in the United States, where only 45 participants downloaded the study app during 2 months [25]. Interestingly, the study reported that more than 100 email messages and phone calls were received from Apple users showing interest in downloading the app whenever it was available in the Apple App Store [25]. Thus, even though Android OS users are double the Apple OS users, due to the fact that some Android devices are very inexpensive compared to Apple devices, we assume that some Android users are not recognizing it as a smartphone and are therefore not interested in apps, or maybe they do recognize it, but just do not have a need for the apps. 350c69d7ab