72% of android smartphone buyers in India do not receive latest OS update: Study

NEW DELHI: About 72% of android smartphone buyers did not receive an update to the latest android OS or its latest features at the time of purchase in CY 2015, according to CyberMedia Research (CMR) report.

“To add to this, 64% of android smartphones shipped in the India market in 2015 featured the ageing Android KitKat OS, which is close to three years old,” CMR said in its special report, “State of Mobile Operating System Adoption in India”

The study was conducted across 158 different smartphone brands and covered 1,476 device models.

“With increase in commoditisation of hardware features owing to competitive pressures, Smartphone vendors will need to start focusing on creating differentiation through user experience enabled by OS and software features. Typically, a consumer nowadays needs to purchase a premium priced Smartphone to access the latest Android OS or software-enabled features,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, Telecoms at CMR.

“The key reason for the delay in sending updates to existing android smartphones is that handset vendors prefer to launch new models, rather than focus on updating existing ones to provide a consistent user experience. Of course, this comes with the rider that wherever it is essential and critical to send an update, they do not remain selective,” Faisal further added.

Emerging Role of Software as a Differentiator: Custom ROM and UI

The report also delved into the other layers of Smartphone software – the various Custom ROMs (Cyanogen, Oxygen etc.) and UIs (MiUI, TouchWiz etc.). According to the study, in 2015 just 2.3% of Smartphones shipped in India were equipped with a Custom ROM – Cyanogen or Oxygen.

Despite Custom ROM offering deeper levels of customisation, it is largely left for more tech-savvy users to ‘fiddle’ with the device, giving them a more personalised experience. Over 95% of Smartphones shipped during the year were loaded with a proprietary UI from the handset vendor that not only allows users flexibility to personalise widgets (apps, subscriptions etc.) but also serves as a visible differentiator for brands.

User Behaviour

CMR also conducted an end-to-end research of over 400 smartphone users across major cities with some interesting findings.

While iOS users lead with 96% users updating the OS at least once, Android lags behind at an abysmal 38%. Interestingly, the major drivers for OS update are 77% users seeking performance improvements, 57% users wanting to explore new features, and 43% looking for security and bug fixes.

Putting the user research into perspective, Satya Mohanty, Lead, End-User Research at CMR said, “Awareness of what the update will offer plays a vital role in the adoption and this is reflected in the findings as well. The smartphone industry as a whole needs to increase awareness about all the three hierarchies – OS, Custom ROM and UI among users.

“This will enable them to appreciate the relevance of software updates and how OS level updates can improve overall handset performance. We witnessed a very high update percentage across OS, Custom ROM and UI among users, once they were made aware about the significance of the same,” Satya concluded.