Indians willing to give up TV for their smartphones

Incredible as it may seem to older generations, many Indians would rather give up their television time than leave their smartphones idle. At least, that's what a study by internet giant Google and research agency IPSOS has found.

Ericsson ConsumerLab, the research wing of Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson, found a similar trend among Indian teenagers and children.

The Google-IPSOS study, conducted across 40 countries, shows that compared to mature smartphone markets such as the US, UK and Germany, where less than 27 per cent of the people are willing to give up television time for smartphones, in India, a whopping 49 per cent is ready to do so.

The usage and loyalty behaviour of the users also revealed that 58 per cent of women found their smartphones more entertaining than television. Women use smartphones to connect with friends over social networks, get information on where to hang out, and shop online. More than 55 per cent of males use their smartphones to watch videos.

BT was not able to ascertain the sample size of the study.

The total number of smartphone users in India is estimated to be 27 million, according to Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights.

The Ericsson ConsumerLab survey studied mobile phone usage trends in India's Generation Z, which includes teenagers (13-19), tweens (12-15) and children in the 9-11 age group.

The survey states that mobile phone ownership is catching on at an early age, with 30 million out of 69 million urban members of Generation Z owning one.

In addition, says the study, 21 per cent of urban Indian kids and tweens mirror the mobile internet services usage of their older counterparts. In fact, kids and tweens are more likely than teens to stream a YouTube video every week on their mobile devices. They spend roughly seven hours a day on mobile phones, televisions and gaming consoles.

The Ericsson ConsumerLab India study covered 16 cities and 9-18 year-old mobile phone users across 7,785 urban households.

It also found that 58 per cent of Generation Z is now willing to give up watching television in order to use the internet on a mobile phone.

That's another thing that will leave the older generation scratching their heads.