With growing 4G adoption, majority of Indians buying smartphones online

With prominent players of telecom sector pushing 4G with tempting offers, 53 percent of Indians bought their smartphones online, says Deloitte.

Neeraj Jain, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP said, "With Internet becoming cheaper and higher mobile data penetration, consumers are becoming extremely data hungry. Thus, usage of smartphones is only expected to grow from here onwards."

In its report, 'Mobile Consumer Survey 2016', Deloitte also noted that because of higher penetration of mobile data, most smartphone owners in India are becoming less dependent on WiFi.

The report claims the 4G adoption is expected to grow strongly to become the predominant data network.

While 53 percent chose to place an order online for smartphones, 39 percent of smartphone owners are still preferring retail stores to buy a new device in 2016. "The most common reason given for not using a phone to make a payment was fear about security, cited by 29 percent of respondents," the survey noted.

This research shows that the usage frequency has also increased for most data communications services. Instant Messaging (74 percent), Social network (64 percent) and Email (63 percent) saw the highest growth in usage frequency.

Furthermore, smartphone owners use their devices to check bank balances (54 percent), pay utility bills (54 percent) and services bill (53 percent) the most. This is followed by transferring money within the country (38 percent) and abroad (31 percent).

The Deloitte Global Mobile Consumer Survey, 2016 examined over 2000 Indian consumers. India data comprises of representatives from eight urban cities with internet access and adults ageing between 18 and 54.