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App Makers Should Create More Relevant Apps For Tech-Savvy Indians

App Makers

The mobile app usage in India has outpaced the global growth. India has the second-largest number of mobile app downloads in the world, overtaking the US and trailing only China, according to a survey by Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) in partnership with Chase India. This report that aims at capturing consumer preference based on most popular apps identified by Nielsen said that consumers exercise informed choice when selecting the mobile application. Indian consumers frequently download competing apps and, multi-home based upon the quality of the apps and services.

Secondly, the study revealed consumers often use multiple applications for the same activity leading to significant degree of overlap in categories like browsers (50%), online retail (42%), messaging (48%) and cab aggregators (28%). In terms of preferences, even when presented with both options, there is almost an equal distribution between pre-installed and downloaded apps, signifying that the Indian consumers use apps that they find most useful and relevant.

There is high awareness and usage of third party apps. Consumers download these apps from different app stores, web or even sideload them. 86% users stated that peer reviews and word of mouth are key influencers for choosing an application and also the openness of the Android ecosystem has created an extensive and competitive mobile app ecosystem that provides a plethora of choices for the Indian consumers.

Rashmi Goyal, Sr. Manager – Advocacy, CERC added, “The consumers today are much more aware about their digital footprint and demand greater control over an application’s functionality and access. However, a large user base , especially  in the semi-urban and rural areas still are unable to protect  their concerns while installing or using apps of their choice.  It is the need of the hour that device manufacturers now take responsibility of safeguarding consumers and saving them resources by providing preinstalled apps of choice with fair terms and conditions.  App makers and service providers should further ensure that unnecessary and irrelevant information is not asked from the user while installing or using any app and access to consumer data should be fair and well documented. Consumers should also be made aware of the controls provided to them for accessing a given service without compromising their privacy.”

Kaushal Mahan, Lead-Technology Practice, Chase India further added, “The mobile app market in India is very competitive. As a result, the Indian consumers are can choose between multiple apps for the same function or service. At the same time, as the internet penetration continues to deepen in India and new users begin to us mobile applications, it is imperative to educate the new users about tools that they can use to protect their data in the digital ecosystem.”

The primary research was done in two parts. The first part constituted collation and analysis of data from Neilsen’s smartphone panel ‘On-Device Meters’(ODMs) of 8000 connected smartphone users spread across India. In the second part of primary research, a quantitative survey carried out by Nielsen through interviews conducted with 3776 respondents from urban and rural centers from 20 states.

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