Consumers love mobile applications for their entertainment value, but they may not be meeting users? needs when it comes to privacy and annoying crashes, according to two new reports.

A new report from Soasta finds that bugs, crashes and performance are some of the main reasons that cause 77 percent of consumers to hesitate about buying apps. An additional report from MEF finds that a majority of the top 100 free apps are not transparent with privacy information.

"Mobile is different, and when companies don't treat mobile applications as a key part of their business by investing in a great user experience, consumers are disappointed in the applications,? said Peter Galvin, senior vice president of marketing at Soasta, Mountain View, CA.

?Our research has shown that many mobile applications are not properly tested before they are delivered to consumers,? he said. ?In the physical world marketers test their advertising, store concepts and messaging to ensure they resonate with consumers.?

Consumer hesitations
According to the Soasta report that includes responses from 3,130 adults in the United States, 58 percent of consumers who buy mobile apps cited bugs as a reason that would prevent them from downloading.

Additionally, crashes were a problem for 57 percent of the consumers surveyed, and poor performance was an issue for 48 percent of consumers.

Other factors that went into why consumers are hesitant to buy apps include speed or the app not responding to a consumer?s touch on the screen.

Apps are likely to continue to play a bigger role for marketers in the coming years in building loyalty, but the study finds that developers are not likely to test the apps to help with consumers? pain points.

A separate study from Soasta surveyed 1,309 mobile app developers and IT specialists, with the findings pointing towards cost and time involved as the main factors holding back investments in apps.

Fifty-one percent of developers said that either time or cost was the reason why they did not test apps.

Not having a solid freemium option in place held back 36 percent of developers from testing a mobile app, and 33 percent said that the software used to test apps was difficult to learn.

Privacy concerns
Another new study from MEF finds that privacy policies within the top 100 free apps are not up to par.

The report found that 28 percent of the top 100 apps available from Google Play do not have a privacy policy in place.

Another recent report from the company found that 70 percent of consumers want to know what types of personal data they are sharing within apps.

For apps that do have a privacy policy in place, only 55 percent present the information to consumers before a download, which the report cites as misleading to consumers since they do not have all of the information that they need before deciding to download an app.

Thirty-two percent of apps with a privacy policy offer access to consumers, and 69 percent of privacy policies are written in long form.

Long form is defined as more than 750 words, and these types of privacy policies are likely difficult for consumers to read and understand when looking at a small screen.

"Mobile apps are an exciting way to enhance a company?s brand, access new customers and make it easier to shop,? Mr. Galvin said.

?Depending on business goals, marketers can build disposable apps to coincide with a particular event, develop commerce apps to enhance shopping experience or use location technologies to provide new opportunities for consumers,? he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York