India can become next app superpower: Experts

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SME Times News Bureau | 14 Mar, 2013
India has the ability to become the next app superpower due to its enormous consumption power and potential, said a panel of experts at the 14th edition of Ficci-Frames 2013 here Wednesday.

The discussion, titled 'Apps are Changing the World: Can India be the Next App Superpower?', took place on the second day of the annual convention of the media and entertainment industry here, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

The panel of experts included Disney UTV Managing Director-Digital Vishal Mondal, Oovoo.com CEO Jay Alan Samit, celebrity chef Vikas Khanna and Nokia India Director-Marketing Viral Oza. The session was moderated by NDTV Technology Managing Editor Rajiv Makhni.

Quoting a study, Makhni said nine billion mobile apps were downloaded in India in 2012.

"However, 90-95 percent of these are deleted after one use. In this scenario, can India contribute something to the growing app world and go on to become an app superpower is something we can explore," he said.

While stating India had the potential to become the next app superpower, Gondal said monetisation was one of the biggest challenges developers faced.

The panellists agreed that most apps had come from companies and places that have so far been unheard of and that there was a huge potential waiting to be tapped in India and other countries.

However, Makhni said a lot was yet to be done when it came to creating innovative apps.

"Temple Run game, for example, has seen several sequels and same is the case with many other games. This raises questions on whether there is any innovation happening at all," he said.

On the other hand, giving out interesting statistics on the app downloads, Oza said 50 percent of the app downloads across all platforms (Nokia Market, Android, iTunes and BlackBerry) have been from the Nokia Market.

"Nokia Market sees over 80 million downloads in a month in India. Also, 52 percent of all the data used across platforms is used on Nokia mobiles," Oza said.

Samit said apps were viral. People often tend to figure out which one is the best through friends or other references, he said.

"The market is immense. An average user spends around 200 minutes a month on all kinds of apps," he said.