US stands third with 259mn smartphone connections.
There is no doubt about the growth in the smartphone sector across the world as more people use it for purposes beyond making and receiving calls.
According to statistics from Google, people accessing the web through mobile devices have multiplied over the years, forcing the webmasters to adopt responsive designs for websites. Now, a report published by GSMA India is the second largest market for smartphones, only next to China.
As per the report, there are 910 million smartphone connections in China and next comes India with the second quarter of 2016 registering 275 million smartphone connections.
The report also says that India is way above the US, which is third in the list with 259mn smartphone connections.
The increase in the use of smartphones in India is largely attributed to the availability of smartphones that starts at a price as low as Rs 3,000, which comes with features such as 3G and 4G, making internet usage much faster than the traditional 2G connection.
Alasdair Grant, the head of Asia for GSMA, told Times of India that the growth of smartphones in India will remain strong as 4G and 3G networks are getting expanded across the country.
Also, the decreasing cost of data triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio will increase the smartphone usage.
The reports say that the number of 4G connection in India will reach 280 million by the end of 2020 against mere 3 million at the end of 2015. The number of 4G connections will be 50% of the total mobile connections in 2020.
The smartphone manufacturers operating in India, including Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Oppo have been coming up with 4G enabled at the affordable price.
GSMa says that the Indian mobile operators are competently taking up the task of upgrading their mobile network. It says by the end of 2020, Indian mobile network will be 90% 3G compatible, out of which 40% will be 4G ready.
India’s growing trend to use dual sim smartphones have added to the number of smartphone connections as the report predicts by the end of June 2017 India’s mobile subscriber number will touch 616 million.
According to the ‘India Mobile Economy’ report, GSMA thinks that around 330 mn new mobile users will be added by 2020.
According to GSMA report, there will be a compounded annual growth rate of 64 percent between 2015 and 2020, which is a 12-fold increase in present usage.