Battle of the Smartphone Apps in India : Google leads the pack

The growth of Android since entering India last year has it taking the leadership position in terms of shipments last quarter. Google properties occupy the top spot in five of the top seven genres, by reach. Facebook and Nimbuzz lead the social networking and chat genres respectively.

A Nielsen Informate panel found smartphone users in India spending more than 40 percent of total active time on their smartphones on data-centric activities. A full 25 percent of users’ time with apps is spent on those developed by Google, with the Android Market, YouTube and Gmail leading the way. Google apps dominate in terms of time spent for streaming video, GPS, email, and search. 94% of time spent on streaming video goes to YouTube, while 86% of time spent on GPS is with Google.