With increasing number of smartphone manufacturers and decreasing costs of Internet data plans, India has taken the top spot in the country with the most downloads on Google Play store in 2016 — surpassing the US. This data has been published in a report from the analyst firm App Annie’s 2016 Retrospective report.
“In 2016, India surpassed the US as the second largest smartphone market due to a large increase in the number of domestically produced smartphones. This is only the beginning, however, as India’s smartphone penetration is still below 30 per cent and its overall economy is poised for massive growth,” App Annie’s report stated.
The total downloads from the Google Play Store in India stood at 6 billion, closely followed by the US in second position, with Brazil in third. Revenue wise, Japan came at the top, US and South Korea on second and third respectively. This meant, India was spending far lesser than other countries.
“Mature markets like the US and Japan are shifting from a download growth phase to one characterised by expanding app usage and revenue growth. Meanwhile, emerging markets like India and Indonesia are still experiencing hypergrowth in app downloads,” the report adds.
App Annie’s report data states that the app downloads grew by 15 per cent in 2016 as compared to 2015, with time spent on apps growing by 25 per cent. This has driven app store revenue for publishers on iOS and Google play stores up by 40 per cent.
China had taken the top spot in 2016 for most revenue for the iOS App Store. App Annie considers that 2017 is all set to be another big year for the app ecosystem. “As technology and business models continue to evolve, apps will play an even greater role in transforming, disrupting and creating opportunities for companies and industries, both old and new,” App Annie states.
