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Welcome back to the Weekly News Wr(app), the weekly Indus OS series that recaps the latest in the mobile and app industry.
The Indian app ecosystem saw a positive change in the last few weeks. The CCI ruling against Google’s dominance in the Android market is welcomed by Indian startups, companies like Indus OS and Map My India are allowed to file impleadment as aggrieved parties, and Google faces refusal from NCLAT for interim protection. What is happening now? Read below:
Google says the CCI ruling will increase security risks and prices of smartphones
After being refused by NCLAT for interim protection against the CCI rulings, Google has approached the Supreme Court and the hearing is due this week.
In its defense, a Google Spokesperson said, “The CCI’s decision is a major setback for Indian consumers and businesses, opening serious security risks for Indians who trust Android’s security features, and raising the cost of mobile devices for Indians.”
However, as proven in history, fueling innovation has only decreased the prices of mobile devices over the years, something Google has also been an advocate for. Earlier it was in the hardware space, and now is the time to encourage software innovations to decrease the price further.
As for security concerns, if providing more choices to users imposes a security risk, then Google has fundamentally created a monopolistic architecture that is not in the best interest of users.
Read more here: bit.ly/3H5y4GS
While the Android case is heard by the top court of India this week, the government of India comes bearing another good news for the app ecosystem. What is Indus OS and why is it developed? Read below:
The government of India plans to launch an Indian OS: IndOS
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT on 24th January 2022 stated in a PTI interview – that the government is looking for capabilities within start-up and academic ecosystems for the development of an indigenous operating system (OS).
One year later, when Google is under scrutiny and is penalized by the CCI for exploiting its dominance in the Android market, the development of an Indian OS, tentatively titled IndOS, has been confirmed by a government official. The objective for building an Indian OS is stated to create competition for Google’s Android in the mobile operating system market, which currently holds 95.8% of the market share.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/3ITi0JG
As we wait for the positive transformation in the Indian app ecosystem in the future, let’s also look at how last year went by with respect to Indian user behavior on mobile apps:
Indian user behavior on smartphones in 2022: A glimpse
As per the State of Mobile 2023 report by data.ai, Indian users downloaded 28Bn apps on their smartphones, accounting for 5% of the global downloads, ranking second in overall downloads, behind China. The average usage per day per user was 4.9 hours, as compared to an average of over 5 hours or more per day in the top 5 countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and South Korea. In total, Indians spent 0.74 Tn hours on mobile apps in 2022.
Indians went heavy on shopping apps in 2022, spending 8.7 Bn hours, out of the 110 Bn hours spent globally. Interestingly, Meesho was the top app worldwide in terms of total MAU. Flipkart was another Indian app that made it top 10.
PhonePe, Paytm, Bajaj Finserv, and YONO SBI made it to the list of top 10 downloaded apps in the finance category globally.
Source: State of Mobile 2023, Data.ai
