App usage growth in India slowed down to 43pc YoY in 2016 against 92pc in 2015

BANGALORE, INDIA: India’s mobile app usage still ascending on the growth curve but not at the rate its was seen in the year prior. The app usage growth slowed down to 43% YoY in 2016 compared to 2015 growth rate of 92%, reveals the findings of State of the App Nation in India study done by Flurry Analytics, division of Yahoo.

The study is backed by data gleaned from over 940,000 applications, across 2.1 billion global devices from across the world, and the 58,000 apps, across 147 million devices from India, that use Flurry.

Compared to 2015, global app usage grew by 11% in 2016. In previous years, all app categories grow in tandem; however, for 2016 year the story is different. In 2016 mobile apps started eating their own, with session and time-spent growth in some app categories occurring at the expense of others. While Messaging and Social apps use rose year-over-year by 44%, Personalization apps (like emoji keyboards) declined by 46%.

Christopher Klotzbach, Director, Flurry from Yahoo said, “As smartphones celebrate their first decade; the mobile app industry has grown into a dog-eat-dog world. The decelerating rate of global growth could signal market maturity, saturation or simply the end of the app gold rush.” He added, “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. We are excited to see what app developers do in the next decade and watch which industry they chose to disrupt, again.”

Some global trends noticed in the study are that an average mobile consumer spends just under 5 hours a day on their smartphones. The burgeoning trend of ‘Communitainment’ (or, social sharing of media) is driving mobile consumers to spend more than 2 hours/day on Social and Messaging apps. Shopping applications saw over 17 billion sessions in 2016; effectively changing retail window shoppers into mobile impulse buyers.

The top 3 app growth categories in India are Music, Media and Entertainment followed by Business and Finance apps, and Utilities and Productivity apps. Music, Media and Entertainment applications saw the biggest usage increase at 188% YOY, which can be attributed to rise of phablet devices and better Internet connectivity in India. Business and Finance apps grew 176% YoY. Utilities and Productivity apps grew 99% YoY.

Messaging and social apps remain one of the most engaged categories in Asia and India: Time-spent in Messaging and Social apps grew by an impressive 52% in India and 44% globally.

Personalization apps see decline:Much like the global trends, Personalization apps saw the biggest usage decrease at -32%. This decrease is due to operating systems integrating the functionality of these apps natively.

Indian mobile consumers have very diverse tastes while selecting their mobile manufacturer:More than 12 mobile makers have a substantial footprint locally with Samsung leading with 40% market share, followed by brands like Micromax, Redmi and Lenovo. This is an interesting phenomenon, compared to mobile manufacturer popularity globally where on average there are about six major mobile manufacturers.

Sticky Apps Tied to Daily Habits: Some of the most successful app categories throughout the years have tapped into the mobile addict population. They’re also apps that rely on live data, such as Business and Finance (up 43% globally in time-spent; up 176% in India). Interestingly in India, this trend is best seen in Health and Fitness app usage (up 27% locally). These apps see high hourly engagement throughout the day, as users turn to their mobile and wearable devices to track their fitness goals and progress.

Shopping Apps Spell the Doom and Gloom of Brick and Mortars: In 2016, shopping apps continued to gain popularity, growing 31% globally and 12% in India.

Video Killed the Gaming Star: Gaming, the app category known as “the darling of the mobile industry,” saw time-spent decline by 4% globally and a small growth in India of just 8%.

Mobile consumers in India are night owls: With peak usage rolling in around 9PM. Indian users are generally slower to turn to their phones in the morning but quickly scale usage throughout the later morning hours.

The trends also show that the Indian mobile consumers are phablet(devices with screens between 5” and 6.9”) lovers, with the form factor size securing 61% of the market share in India, which outpaced growth in the US which has 48% market share. This footprint is also the driving force behind global adoption figures. The phablet is the fastest growing mobile device globally.