According to a study by KANTAR, the gender gap in smartphone ownership has narrowed over the past five years, even though males consistently exhibited higher ownership percentages. The sharp increase in smartphone adoption levels is pronounced among female users, suggesting a closing gap in technology access. Between 2018 and 2023, smartphone ownership among female users increased by over 32 percentage points to almost 79 per cent. By comparison, smartphone ownership among male users increased by 29 percentage points to 86 per cent.
Further, as per the findings of the KANTAR target group index (TGI) study, smartphone ownership among the 44+ age group in urban India fell to 14 per cent in 2023 from 19 per cent in 2019, while it rose to 13 per cent from 9 per cent in rural areas, reflecting growing rural income, availability of affordable smartphones and low-cost data. This age group segment in rural India, which the study labels as ‘silver demographic’, is likely to be among the key driving forces that will ring in the next wave of growth in the country’s smartphone user base. Overall, feature phone ownership among 44-year-old mobile users rose to 32 per cent in 2023 from 29 per cent in 2019.
The latest household affluence indicator numbers collated by KANTAR-TGI also pointed out a consistent rise in smartphone adoption across New Consumer Classification System (NCCS) cohorts (A, B, C, D/E). Smartphone ownership levels even in the least affluent NCCS-D/E and the modestly affluent NCCS-C cohorts have jumped to almost 66 per cent and 75.3 per cent, respectively, in 2023 from around 31 per cent and 45.7 per cent in 2018.
