What he means is that most people, including those in his social circle, are irrational about paying for apps, and so won't use it.

Are they being irrational?

Most apps are opened once, twice at most. A small percentage of apps downloaded are used at all after the first day on the user's device. A very few make it into daily use; and most of those are on the device the day it's purchased.

This is because most apps are not compelling experiences.

If you factor in the risk that this app, like most of the ones they have seen so far; will not be in their life for more than 10 minutes... I would say they are being rational in their pricing bias.

There are two ways around this. You can communicate your value ahead of time to your potential customers, which Fog Of World does fairly well. Or you can build a business model that has usage based pricing through in-app purchases, so that people who are regular users are paying their way.

Just curious, are there any sites which show most-used apps?

All good points. I was mostly responding to the GGP's snark.

It makes perfect sense.

Probably my most well-traveled friend is far from well-off. She just prioritizes travel over many other things in her life, like $5 mobile apps that don't solve any specific problem.