India will have 810 million smartphone users by 2021: Ericsson
India looks all set to retain its title as the world's fastest-growing smartphone market. By 2021, India is expected to have 810 smartphone subscriptions, a four-old increase from its subscriber base in 2015, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report. The total number of mobile subscriptions in the country will reach 1.37 billion by 2021.
India had also seen the maximum increase in mobile subscribers in world in the first quarter of this year, according to the recent global Ericsson Mobility Report. It saw 21 million new subscribers in this period, as compared to 5 million in Indonesia and 3 million in the US.
Here are some other findings from the report.
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Most popular apps
WhatsApp is the top mobile app in India, followed by Google search and YouTube. The file-sharing app Xender is the top app according to average monthly data usage, along with similar app SHAREit and YouTube.
Music and video are popular
Music streaming and videos are the most popular forms of entertainment on smartphones. Around 50% of smartphones users stream music on apps, and more than one in two Internet users watches online videos every week.
Mobile broadband will increase dramatically
By 2021, 99% of the mobile traffic in India will be from data. The total mobile traffic is expected to increase by 15 times from 2015 to 2021, reaching a figure of 4.5EB (that's one billion GB) every month. On an average, a smartphone user's monthly data usage will increase five-fold from 1.4GB in 2015 to 7GB by 2021.
More Indians will shift from 2G to 3G and 4G
The number of GSM/EDGE (2G) subscribers are expected to grow until 2016 and will then decline due to "operator initiatives to migrate 2G subscribers to 3G". Parallel to this, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE (3G and 4G) networks will rise and account for 65% of all subscriptions by 2021.
Data is more important than voice
The reports says that data speed is gaining more priority over network voice in determining smartphone users' satisfaction with their network provider. Smartphone users between 15 and 24 years value high data speed the most and are willing to pay more for it.
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Sonam Joshi was Mashable's principal correspondent in India. She has previously worked for The Times of India group and Time Out Delhi, and written for The Caravan, Mint Lounge and Yahoo Originals.
