India smartphone trends: Whatsapp is the country's favourite app, followed by Google and Youtube

By 2021, the total number of mobile subscriptions in India is expected to reach approximately 1.37 billion, claims Ericsson.

In its recently released Ericsson Mobility Report, it also highlights key trends and forecasts on mobile traffic, consumption, consumer behavior and technology uptake specific to India and its users.

The report goes on to state that mobile broadband is set to dramatically increase, with smartphone subscriptions and total mobile traffic expected to increase four-fold and fifteen-fold respectively from 2015 to 2021 – reaching 810 million smartphone subscriptions and mobile traffic of 4.5 ExaBytes (EB) per month.

Data traffic per active smartphone is expected to increase five-fold from 1.4 GigaByte (GB) per month in 2015 to 7 GB per month by 2021. That’s not all; it also predicts that in 2021, 99 percent of the region’s mobile traffic will be from data.

The report also highlights some key smartphone trends noticed in the country:

1. Streaming music is a popular form of entertainment: In India, streaming music and watching videos are the most popular forms of entertainment on smartphones. Around 50 percent of smartphone users stream music on mobile apps every week, and more than one in two internet users watch short online video clips on a weekly basis.

2. India’s favourite apps: Among Indian smartphone users, WhatsApp Messenger is the top mobile app, in terms of the number of Indian consumers, followed by Google Search and YouTube. E-commerce apps such as Flipkart, Paytm and Snapdeal are growing in popularity in India.

3. Internet activity is catching up with global levels: In India, one out of three internet users goes online daily, compared to almost half globally.5 However, the nation’s internet usage is catching up, and those aged 16–34 years old have a high dependence on online access.

4. Data is king: Data is gaining prominence over voice for smartphone users in India as data speed is considered as the most important factor in determining both network performance and smartphone users’ satisfaction with their operator.

Image credit: Indiatimes







·