In 2016, India will be amongst the biggest players in the global app market

The prerequisites of the Indian market to become one of the leading app markets are improving rapidly. Today’s leading smartphone app markets, the USA and the top 5 Western EU countries, will lose their dominant positions.
The new report on the Smartphone App Market provides details on business opportunities for the Indian market.

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There are various factors that have an impact on the size of the app business in a country. The four  main drivers for this development are:

Dynamic of the overall economic wealth: Over the past two decades India has had an annual average GDP growth rate of 5.8%, making the country one of the top emerging economies today. Furthermore, India’s GDP purchasing power parity (PPP) is ranked 3rd in the world by the most important institutions (e.g. the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook). The overall economic growth will drive the demand for apps that address customers with the help of the mobile channels.

Increase of average income: Today the monthly average salary in India amounts to only US$ 295, accounting for only 10% of the monthly average salary in both the US and Germany and roughly 50% of the average Chinese monthly salary. Additionally, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), 41.6% of the Indian population lives below US$ 1.25 PPP per day. Projected growth rates of income are well above Western countries in the next few years. More and more employees will be able to afford a smartphone and thus drive India’s current smartphone share to 9% overtaking Western countries’ figures.

High expected number of smartphone shipments: India is currently ranked 7th in the world in terms of smartphone shipments, with a global market share of 2.9%. However, by 2016, the Indian market will become the third largest market for smartphone shipments (surpassing Brazil and the UK in the ranking) and will have an accompanying market share of 9.3%. This means that almost every tenth smartphone in the world will be shipped to the Indian market.

Active app developer community: India has one of the largest app developer communities that concentrate on offshore development today. With the growth of the domestic app market (user base and download number), more and more individuals will concentrate on developing apps for the Indian market creating more apps and download opportunities.

Those drivers will help to make India one of the leading app markets worldwide in only three years, providing business opportunities not only for domestic players.

 

There is more information on the Indian app market in the latest Smartphone App Market Monitor, Vol.7. The report is available in the following formats:

PDF Report (64 Pages, explanatory text)

PPT File (66 Pages, drag-and-drop slides into your presentations)

PDF Report and PPT File (bundle)