India's app downloads to reach 9 billion by 2015, says Study

The number of app downloads in India is expected to grow from 1.56 billion per annum in 2012 to 9 billion by 2015, says a new study.

The joint-study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and Deloitte concluded it will be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 75 per cent, the chamber said on Tuesday announcing the results of the study.

The study revealed that most of the apps are downloaded by people in the age group of 16 and 30 years.

The joint study - Digitisation and Mobility - said the paradigm shift was brought by the social media campaign during the 2014 Lok Sabha election, where 29 million people made 227 million interactions on Facebook.

It said about 60 million tweets were posted from the day the polls were announced to the day balloting ended.

A variety of mobile apps are available in app stores: Apple's devices are equipped with iMessage, BlackBerry devices with BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and Windows Phone devices with a Windows Live client. Android devices have a range of messenger apps options , including WhatsApp and SnapChat.

"Mobile TV registered a 400 per cent growth rate in viewership for the country's largest telecom companies as more Indians watched TV on the go. YouTube, the most popular video app is accessed by 35 per cent of smartphone users who spend almost 1.5 hours a month on it," Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat said.

The share of video in internet data traffic is expected to rise from 41 per cent in 2011-12 to 64 per cent in 2016-17.

The growing adoption of mobility devices is prompting pay-TV and internet TV providers to offer a wider choice of content via smartphones, tablets and phablets.

However, the study said India being a price sensitive society, people are still reluctant to pay for mobile games and downloading large file-sized games or apps despite cheap gaming rates and mobile internet plans.

Monetisation is thus a big issue for both the local and global mobile game developers entering the Indian market.