How Big is the Indian Mobile App Industry?

Aug 25
08:33

2013

Jennifer Lewis

Jennifer Lewis

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Boom in the number of smart phone users in India has expanded the market of mobile services beyond our vision. It is swiftly becoming an integral part of the whole experience. This sector has witnessed vast growth in the last couple of years and research firm Gartner predicts that it will see an annual growth rate of 8 percent.

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Boom in the number of smart phone users in India has expanded the market of mobile services beyond our vision. It is swiftly becoming an integral part of the whole experience. This sector has witnessed vast growth in the last couple of years and research firm Gartner predicts that it will see an annual growth rate of 8 percent. This growth rate will take this industry's estimated value well beyond INR 1.2 trillion by the end of year 2013. However,How Big is the Indian Mobile App Industry? Articles despite these mammoth figures, it would shock you that this is merely 2 percent of the global mobile industry. With India having more than 800 million mobile users and 100 million Internet users, this country is considered as the biggest mobile apps market. The advent of smart phones has helped a lot in popularizing the concept of mobile apps and now everyone wants to have apps that could simplify their lives in a number of ways. This has also encouraged entrepreneurs to get mobile apps for their business and introduce it to higher revenues and enhanced productivity. This has made many app development companies emerge in this country and take advantage of the opportunities given by the people of this country. In a recent survey conducted by a business magazine, this topic was discussed extensively and here are the highlights of what this survey revealed.

Details of mobile phone usage in India –

1. The total number of mobile connections in India are 881.4 million however, this does not translate that there are 881.4 million users. Users could be less or even more.

2. Out of 881.4 million connections, number of connections that has Internet activated is around 30 million. This does not necessarily mean 30 million users are using the Internet via their mobile phones.

3. It is estimated that by the end of 2015, India will have 237 million mobile Internet connections.

4. 97 percent Indian phone market is still using prepaid mobile connections.

Stats of smart phones apps usage in India

1. In India, more than 100 million apps downloads are recorded every month.

2. Nokia claims that it records 48 million apps download every month.

3. The global app market was at USD 4.1 billion in 2009 and was expected to touch USD 17.5 billion by the end of 2012.

4. Most apps users in India prefer to use freemium version of an app.

5. There are around 2,50,000 app developers in India.

This research further studied the ways in which India business owners who are willing to have apps can make money and revealed few critical points.

1. They can use advertising as well as pre and post roll ads in free downloadable apps.

2. Through freemium version of the apps, where they can keep the base version free and ask for charges for further downloads. The best example is of gaming apps, where first version can be allowed to download free and keep the rest of versions under lock. Once users get addicted to the game, you can charge them in lieu of unlocking the further versions of that game.

3. Payment – In India, an app developer gets mere 30 percent amount, if his app is approved on any platform. In foreign countries, the platform gets 30 percent amount as a fee and the rest of the amount goes to the app owner.

Conclusion

These stats above signify that the Indian mobile apps industry has great future prospects. With this country having some best app development companies, there won't be any surprise if it presents a stiff challenge to the US and the UK based apps developers in terms design, functionality, security and every other aspect of an app.