As of now, there are 160 million users of smartphones in India, out of which 63% are under the age of 25. With such a vibrant demography of technology users, it becomes interesting to observe how personas are developed and which features of being used extensively by the smartphone users.

In a research conducted by Vserv, a smart data platform for mobile marketing and ecommerce, 6 major personas of Indian smartphone users were revealed.

These are:

– App Junkies: These users download and use maximum number of applications and games in a month. They constitute 24% of all users in India

– Social Stars: These are the users who spent atleast 2 hours a day on social networking and messenger apps. They control 20% of the share of users

– Conversationalists: These users are mainly using a smartphone to make and receive call; and have very low app usage. They have 16% share.

– Entertainment Buffs: They are the biggest consumers of videos, online games, music and Internet; with 15% share among all users.

– Utilitarians: These are the users who use utility apps the most, with little focus on messenger or social media apps. With 15% share, they are a dominant force.

– Dabblers: These are novice smartphone users, who hasn’t yet realized it’s powers. No app usage, no Internet usage and very less voice calls. They constitute 10% share.

Some interesting highlights from the report:

– App Junkies install 18.5 apps/games every month on an average, as they spent 160 minutes per day on apps. 6.7 GB is the average data consumption of these species.

– Social Starts are spending whooping 236 minutes per day on social media and messengers apps

– Candy Crush game reaches 32.5% of all app junkies, and they spent 11.2 minutes per day on an average on this game.

– On an average, a typical Indian smartphone user will spend 169 minutes a day on his or her smartphone.

– In terms of music streaming, Gaana has a reach of 13.4% among Entertainment buffs, whereas Wynk Music has 8.1% share and Saavn has 6.6% share

– Overall, Flipkart is the #1 destination for ecommerce, with 33.9% share. Snapdeal is #2 with 20% share and Amazon comes #3 at 17.8% share.

– Google Play, 9Apps and PayTm are the most frequented apps for an app junkie.

– WhatsApp, Facebook and Hike are the most favorite apps for Social Stars

– Phone, Gmail and WhatsApp are the three most loved app by the Conversationalists.

– For Entertainment Buffs, MX Player, Youtube and Ganna are the top 3 apps.

– Surprisingly, Viber, HDFC Bank and News Hunt are the top three apps for the Utilitarian.

Vserv, in their report, has stated that they have access to 74% of all mobile users in India; however, this survey about finding out personas was conducted by observing usage patter of 12,000 smartphone users in India.

These 6 major personas was found out after researching 22 actual usage parameters, and undergoing a two-step cluster analysis.

You can find the entire report here (email registration is required).

Smartphone Defeats Sex

A decade before, very few people in the world would have related with the term ‘Nomophobia’; but right now, 7 out of 10 people are suffering from this ailment all over the world. Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

Phobia would be a harsh word here; as doctors describe this as another form of anxiety. But none the less, smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, and there is no denying the fact that it is certainly irreplaceable now, to some extent.

We had earlier shared the findings of research consultancy KRC which conducted an interesting survey across 7,112 smartphone owners in the United States, Britain, Brazil, China, Spain, Mexico and India.

They found that 60% of these users will sleep with their smartphones on their hands; and in this particular instance, India has even overtaken China. 74% of Indians are sleeping with their devices, compared with 70% in China!

Several among the surveyed users admitted that they will rather opt for smartphones than sex, if any need arises to chose between them.

However, in terms of relationships, smartphones cannot defeat emotions. Only 39% said that they are really ‘happy’ with their smartphones while 79% felt that their smartphones are bothering/interrupting them at inappropriate moments.

Smartphones have long transformed into a necessity from luxury; but the new research shows that we are actually dependent on them now: both physically and emotionally.

In case you become anxious if your mobile phone is not near, you can atleast be relieved that you are not alone.

Which smartphone persona are you?