App usage grew rapidly in India: App Annie

According to an annual report by analytics company App Annie, app usage grew rapidly in India, driven by the introduction of subsidized, unlimited 4G access by Jio in September 2016, while India overtook the United States to become ranks second in terms of mobile app downloads in 2017.

The report said that apps' share of consumer attention continues to grow and has become the most critical channel for customer interactions and mobile is truly the first screen in these markets as many users have skipped the desktop generation entirely.

The report also said that emerging markets such as India and Brazil are in the early stages of app maturity and vast download numbers are driven by new smartphone owners discovering and experimenting with new apps.

China is a tale of two markets. Tier 1 cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and tier 2 cities, such as Hangzhou and Chengdu, have reached advanced levels of app maturity and are generating significant revenue for app publishers.

Meanwhile, users downloaded 60 percent more apps in 2017 than in 2015. This equates to nearly 2 apps downloaded every month per human being on the planet.

As apps become an increasingly critical channel for virtually all consumer businesses in all industries, we have seen the number of apps available across Google Play and the iOS App Store expand to more than 6 million.

The firm further said that In most markets analyzed, the average smartphone user has 80 apps on their phone and uses 40 of them in a given month. There is, however, interesting variation among selected countries: The average users in China and Japan have over 100 apps on their phone and access approximately forty, while an average user in India has nearly 80 apps and accesses over 40 of them. These patterns can be useful when planning regional engagement strategies that can boost customer satisfaction and LTV.