Majority Bought Smartphones Online in 2016 as 4G Adoption Rises: Deloitte

Amid the steady 4G adoption growth, 53 percent of Indians bought their smartphones online while 39 per cent of smartphone owners still preferred retail stores to buy a new device in 2016, a Deloitte survey revealed on Wednesday.

According to the 'Mobile Consumer Survey 2016', 4G adoption is expected to grow strongly over the next year to become the predominant data network and about 45 percent of the respondents said that they would subscribe to 4G or LTE in the next 12 months.

"With Internet becoming cheaper and higher mobile data penetration, consumers are becoming extremely data hungry. Thus, usage of smartphone is only expected to grow from here onwards," said Neeraj Jain, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, in a statement.

Communication services namely social networks and instant messaging are the two things consumers check on their smartphones first thing in the morning, the findings showed.

The findings showed that smartphone users wield their devices to check bank balances (54 percent), pay utility bills (54 percent) and services bill (53 percent) the most.

This is followed by transferring money within the country (38 percent) and abroad (31 percent).

"The most common reason given for not using phone to make a payment was fear about security, cited by 29 percent of respondents," the survey noted.

The survey analysed the mobile usage habits of over 2,000 Indian consumers as part of a global survey of 53,000 respondents across five continents and 31 countries.

The India data comprised of representatives from eight urban cities with internet access and adults aged between 18 and 54.