50 percent smartphone users in India don't have an active data connection, Android leads: Survey

As per a recent study conducted by Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights, an alliance between Nielsen and Informate Mobile Intelligence, 93 percent of smartphone users in India own only one handset. However, readers must take note that the sample size of the study was very small at just 10,000 users who were surveyed in September and October 2012 across 46 Indian cities.

The most striking bit about the findings of the survey was that only half of the smartphone users polled, had an active data connection. While the percentage is higher compared to mobile data use amongst feature phone users, it indicates that a large chunk of smartphone users were not connected to the Internet and thus possibly not utilising their smartphone's capabilities to the maximum. It also revealed that more than half of all data users among the respondents were younger than 25.
The study further revealed that Android was the preferred platform among smartphone users, with 62 percent of them choosing devices based on Google's mobile operating system over Symbian which had a user share of 26 percent, and Windows Phone with a user share of 5 percent. The surprising bit was that BlackBerry devices were being used by just 3 percent of all respondents, when it's believed to be one of the most popular smartphone platforms in India.