While smartphone penetration is still low, Android has grown over 500% In India over the last year to become the de factor choice for app developers to target. However whenever someone asks us, which is the most popular Android phone / tablet In India? Do largely the low-end devices fuel the growth? The answer wasn’t easy.
In a bid to better understand Android consumption In India, we reached out to several popular app developers. We are happy to reveal the findings of our survey that we completed last week. We complied data of close to 1.3 million app downloads from India seen by 10 app developers. These apps range from transactional ones like PayTM & Cleartrip to lifestyle ones like Zomato & Gaana (complete list below).
Here is the breakup of Android versions active In India:
While it is unsurprising that Gingerbread is the clear leader here with 45.18% share, Ice Cream Sandwich has over 34% penetration in India, which is a number that appears to be fast growing and is above the international average of 29% as reported by Google itself. We expect Ice Cream Sandwich to overtake Gingerbread in coming months becoming the most popular version used in India. Jelly Bean currently has a little over 10% of market share In India.
Naman Sharma, Head of Mobile Products, Zomato puts forward his views on Android app market in India:
The Android ecosystem is still mostly fragmented with countless combinations of devices and OS versions. But with recent Android releases, the outlook is promising. Android users now appreciate well designed apps and with developer focus shifting, design is no longer just iOS territory. App discovery, however, is still a problem with the Play Store mostly dominated by apps that don’t fulfil a specific consumer need (apart from entertainment).
In 109 Android devices that we currently track as In stock at PriceBaba, 45 run on Ice Cream Sandwich and 59 run Gingerbread. Local brands Micromax and Karbonn have 29 devices on sale between them, most of them running Gingerbread.
A few more observations from our survey
1. Transactional apps see lot of Gingerbread users, whereas Lifestyle / Gaming apps see a higher percentage of ICS users
2. Tablets saw greater use of Ice Cream Sandwich, with HoneyComb (Android 3.0) totaling only 0.27%
3. Donut, Éclair and Froyo totaled less than 2.5%. Many app makers have discontinued support for these versions
4. The Samsung Galaxy series phones and tablets (notably the Tab 2 GT-P3100) dominates Android consumption In India
We created a similar report for 2014, you can read it here: Indian Android Consumption Report 2014.
List of participating Apps & Developers
Here’s thanking all the fantastic developers who made this report possible!
Anirudh Loya
Bank IFSC (Play Store)
Cleartrip (Site / Play Store)
Gaana (Site / Play Store)
Intouch App (Site)
Olacabs (Site / Play Store)
PayTM (Site / Play Store)
Robosoft (Site)
Zomato (Site / Play Store)
Leave a comment