Half the Indians with mobile connections to own smartphones by 2020: Report

According to the report, India is expected to add 206 million new subscribers in the next 3 years

The smartphone adoption in India is likely to touch 49 per cent of total connections by 2020, compared with 28 per cent in 2016.

"During 2016, India overtook the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world (behind only China). And, with adoption at just under 30 per cent, the country will be the main driver of smartphone growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the next few years, adding 360 million smartphone connections by 2020", shows a report on the mobile economy Asia Pacific 2017 by rating agency CARE Ratings.

"According to the GSMA report, the smartphone adoption in India is likely to increase to 49 per cent by 2020 from 28 per cent in 2016. This will mainly be on account of growth in data usage which, in turn, will increase the demand for 3G and 4G data connections. However, smartphone adoption for India is lower compared to China. The smartphone adoption for China is 71 per cent in 2016 which is likely to grow to 74 per cent in 2020", said Bhagyashree Bhati, research analyst at the rating agency.

The report stated that by the end of 2016 the number of smartphone connections in Asia Pacific surpassed two billion with just over half of total connections.

Three of the top five markets globally in smartphone adoption are from Asia Pacific. They are Singapore (83 per cent), Australia (80 per cent) and South Korea (80 per cent).

"However, other developing markets such as China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines have been the main drivers of growth, adding more than 210 million smartphone connections between them in the last year alone", added the report.

The reports said that previously 'laggard' 4G markets (in the Asia Pacific region) such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and India are now beginning to see an accelerating migration to 4G and it is driven by ongoing network investment by mobile operators, increased competition, falling device prices and growing consumer appetite for higher speed mobile.

Australia, South Korea and Japan — the top three markets worldwide in terms of 4G penetration — will continue to be market leaders in terms of 4G uptake, but China will also play a major part, surpassing one billion 4G connections (three quarters of the total connections base) during 2018.

As per the report India is expected to add 206 million new subscribers by 2020.

The growth in subscriber addition in Asia Pacific region will be largely driven by India and China, the report observed.