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Decoding the Top Mobile App Categories in India

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As of March 2017, there are over 2.2 M and 2.8 M mobile apps in the App Store and Play Store respectively. Literally ‘There is a mobile app for everything!’

Indians spend an average of four hours a day on their smart phones and check their phone more than 100 times a day. This is a ringing endorsement of the hold that smartphones have on the Indian psyche. However, Indians don’t go overboard when it comes to installing apps on our smartphones. On an average, Indians install 32 apps on their phones. The App market is promising but there is much competition within.

For app developers looking to break into the Indian market, Decoding the Top Mobile App Categories will give an insight into which types of mobile app categories could be the most lucrative.

 

TOP APP CATEGORIES: ANDROID vs IOS

IOS users clearly have more affinity towards Photography, Education, Business, Health and Fitness, Lifestyle, Maps and Navigation apps than Android Users.

Android Users have relatively more affinity for Games and Personalization apps.

 

TOP PAID APP CATEGORIES

Paid apps are the ones where users pay to download your apps. There may or may not be in-app purchases, advertisements etc. You may also run a subscription service for on top monetization.

ANDROID

PAID ANDROID APP CATEGORY %SHARE
Games 29.50%
Personalization 22.60%
Tools 11%
Productivity 5.90%
Music And Audio 5.40%

IOS

PAID IOS APP CATEGORY %SHARE
Games 27.40%
Photography 13.10%
Utilities 10.70%
Productivity 6.40%
Healthcare/Fitness 5.50%
Entertainment 5.10%
Lifestyle 5%
Education 4.30%

TOP FREE APP CATEGORIES

There are several of ways for monetizing FREE apps. Top 5 are:
1. Advertisements
2. In-App purchases
3. Building Email and SMS Marketing lists/DaaS
4. Partnerships/Sponsors
5. Monthly/Annual Subscription

ANDROID

FREE ANDROID APP CATEGORY %SHARE
Games 43.80%
Tools 8.60%
Photography 7.50%
Entertainment 5.50%
Communication 4.80%

IOS

FREE IOS APP CATEGORY %SHARE
Games 25%
Photography 10.30%
Utilities 8.80%
Social/Networking 7.10%
Entertainment 6.20%
Productivity 4.60%
Lifestyle 4.60%
Travel 4.40%

 

LEAST PREFERRED CATEGORIES

We found two primary reasons why these are the least popular mobile app categories:
1. Native experience is good enough for users to download 3rd party apps.
2. Market Domination by certain apps like Uber, Ola in Transportation, Google Maps in Maps and Navigation.

News And Magazines
Maps And Navigation
Weather
Sports
Video Players
Transportation

 

KNOCK YOURSELF OUT

Feel free to analyze this data and publish your insights and recommendations in the comments below.

 APP CATEGORY ANDROID PAID ANDROID FREE IOS PAID IOS FREE
Games 0.295 0.438 0.274 0.25
Personalization 0.226 0.011
Tools 0.11 0.086 0.107 0.088
Productivity 0.059 0.027 0.064 0.046
Music And Audio 0.054 0.029 0.042 0.038
Photography 0.037 0.075 0.131 0.103
Education 0.035 0.014 0.043 0.023
Health And Fitness 0.029 0.004 0.055 0.026
Media And Video 0.025 0.027
Business 0.022 0.011 0.042 0.041
Books And Reference 0.02 0.009 0.009 0.011
Communication 0.019 0.048
Entertainment 0.015 0.055 0.051 0.062
Social 0.008 0.018 0.024 0.071
Finance 0.007 0.023 0.014 0.039
Lifestyle 0.007 0.02 0.05 0.046
Weather 0.007 0.002 0.006 0.003
Transportation 0.003 0.002
Travel And Local 0.003 0.036 0.018 0.044
Maps And Navigation 0.003 0.002 0.011 0.006
News And Magazines 0.003 0.014 0.002 0.013
Video Players 0.003 0.004
Medical 0.002 0.027 0.019 0.005
Shopping 0.002 0.038 0.001 0.039
Libraries/Demo/Reference 0.002 0.004 0.023 0.017
Sports 0.002 0.004 0.005 0.006

 

Data Used:
Top 600 apps on ios App Store and Android Play Store in India.

To be Published soon:
– Top Mobile App categories in India by Revenue
– %share and %growth of Mobile Apps per category in the App/Play Store