Understanding the sequential interdependence of mobile app adoption within and across categories

•Individual users’ sequential app adoption decisions exhibit high levels of interdependence both within and across app categories.•Previous app adoptions can have enhanced or substitutional effects on subsequent adoptions, and these effects can be nonlinear.•The patterns of sequential app adoption are influenced by various factors, including the level of needs evolvement and horizontal differentiation within each app category, as well as personal characteristics.•The interdependence between sequential app adoptions offers managerial insights for app developers/platforms in their app promotion strategies.