App usage in India grew 43% in 2016; entertainment, finance on top: Study

Time spent on messaging, social apps grew by an impressive 52% in India compared to 44% globally

Usage of mobile applications in India grew 43 per cent in 2016, with entertainment and finance categories witnessing highest traction, according to a study by Yahoo's Flurry Analytics.

"India's app usage grew 43 per cent year on year. The India app usage grew at 92 per cent during the same period last year (2015)," the 'State of the App Nation in India' study said.

Messaging and social apps remain one of the most engaged categories in Asia and India. Time spent on messaging and social apps grew by an impressive 52 per cent in India compared to 44 per cent globally.

Globally, app usage grew by only 11 per cent, it said.

"The decelerating rate of global growth could signal market maturity, saturation or simply the end of the app gold rush.

"Going back to India's six-month mobile trend delay, there's no better time for local developers to innovate, and lessen or possibly stop a local industry pause," Flurry Director Christopher Klotzbach said in a statement.

Flurry collected data from over 940,000 applications, across 2.1 billion global devices from across the world, and 58,000 apps across 147 million devices from India.

The top three app growth categories in India were music, media and entertainment followed by business and finance, and utilities and productivity apps.

"Music, media and entertainment applications saw the biggest usage increase at 188 per cent year-on-year (YoY), which can be attributed to rise of phablet devices and better Internet connectivity in India.

"Business and finance apps grew 176 per cent YoY, utilities and productivity apps grew 99 per cent YoY," the study said.

Phablets, or devices with screen size between 5-6.9 inch, is the most preferred mobile device with 61 per cent market share in India.

"The phablet is the fastest growing mobile device globally. In India, phablets have a market share of 61 per cent, outpacing growth in the US which has 48 per cent market share," the study said.

More than 12 mobile makers have a substantial footprint locally, with Samsung leading with 40 per cent market share, followed by brands like Micromax, Redmi and Lenovo, the study said.

Personalisation apps saw decline in India in line with global trends.

Peak usage of mobile application in India is seen around 9 pm.

"Indian users are generally slower to turn to their phones in the morning but quickly scale usage throughout the later morning hours," the study added.