Indians prefer business-oriented apps: Study

  Bangalore: A recent study has revealed that most smartphone users in India (58 percent) are of the opinion that the applications on their phones benefit their lives and they make use of these apps everywhere from their homes, to work and while commuting.

The study, conducted by Nokia along with Professor Trevor Pinch of Cornell University, also highlighted that most Indians prefer business oriented apps like email and expense managers. Another pointed that came into light through the study is that having and using apps are not synonymous. Indians scored a high point in claiming to use all of the apps on their phone (14 percent).The study patterned the men and women behaviors with respect to apps. More men (93 percent) are likely to download an app as compared to women (87 percent). However, women are more into using social networking apps (43 percent). Here men score low with only 38 percent doing so.

The most popular apps to download are music (41 per cent), social networking (41 per cent), business (27 per cent), photo/ personalization (22 per cent) and games (22 per cent). Although, based on usage, the most popular apps people actually use are social networking (40 per cent), music (36 per cent), business (28 per cent), utilities (21 per cent), games (21 per cent).

The young generation - those aged between 18 and 24 years - heavily download and use social networking apps. The reasons associated with downloading apps also make for an interesting read. While 48 percent Indians think it's important to have the most recent technology and applications, 58 percent of them like to download apps because they know they'll benefit their life.

The study was conducted in 10 countries including India, Singapore, China, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and U.S. and analyzed more than 5,200 smartphone users.

Pinch highlights the relevance of the study when he says, "Apps are becoming intrinsic to the way we live. Our relationship with them has turned from occasional use into a real dependency. It is because of this that our personal app 'collections' represent our unique needs, personality and interests. We can learn much about a person's behavior via a mix of their choice of apps, personality variables, use variables and competence variables."