By Prashant Singh, MD – Media, Nielsen India Region

Smartphone use is booming in India and is quickly becoming the dominant way many of the country’s 900 million mobile phone users stay connected while they’re on the go. Looking at recent trends, the country may have as many as 40 million of these devices in use by early this year. The dramatic growth is being driven by a desire among users to stay connected and have instant access to social networking sites - a global trend that represents an exponential growth opportunity in developing countries like India.

Decreasing device and data costs, coupled with a wide range of features that today’s smartphones offer, are also readily encouraging consumers to trade in their traditional cell phones for handsets with much more functionality. To gain a sense of how this new breed of smartphone user is staying connected, Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights, an alliance between Nielsen and Informate Mobile Intelligence, polled more than 10,000 consumers in September and October 2012 across 46 cities in India to assess overall usage and device preferences.