Indians top the charts for Android app downloads, but lag in the smartphone race
- Android dominates the price sensitive Indian phone market.
- Indians spend most of their time on smartphones.
- But, majority users still own a feature phone.
FollowIn a public transport, you won't be surprised to see every head glued to a smartphone. And, the nation's addiction to phones becomes quite evident as the new App Annie survey results are out. India tops the charts with the highest number of Android app downloads, surpassing even the US.
In 2016, Android users downloaded 6.2 billion apps from the Google play Store, which is an increase from 3.6 billion in 2015, the survey adds. The average number of apps used per person is roughly 30. Video streaming saw a boost in 2016, worldwide. And, so did online shopping.
Earlier last year, smartphones enjoyed 17 percent share of the Indian phone market. But, 2016 was poised to be the year when feature phones would finally take over smartphones. In September that year, there was a revision of figures as feature phones still contributed to over 50 percent of the phone shipments.
Contrary to the global trend, wherein users are jumping on to the smartphone bandwagon, we continue to fail at it. There are various reason and affordability tops the charts. To ensure deeper penetration, government has been asking for smartphones priced as low as Rs 200. However, learning from the past, this may not be really feasible.
The larger scope for smartphone penetration and the untapped population, has ensured that we stay one of the most lucrative markets for phone vendors.
