58% of Indian women find their smartphone more entertaining than TV and 49% of Indian smartphone users would rather give up television than give up their handset. Photo: AFP / Kharidehal Abhirama Ashwin/shutterstock.com
While only 27 percent of users in mature mobile device markets put their phones before their TVs, 49 percent of Indian respondents to the survey
published this week claimed they would rather give up television than their phone.
"This surprising shift is attributable to the combination of communication and entertainment options that the smartphone brings to users," a statement issued by Google said.
What's more, 56 percent of Indians find their smartphones more entertaining than the television, compared with 18 percent of UK, 20 percent of French, 17 percent of German and 21 percent of US respondents. Interestingly, 29 percent of South Africans -- the highest percentage after India and another emerging smartphone market -- also said that they found their phones more entertaining than TV.
This rejection of TV is strongest in female smartphone owners -- 58 percent of women prefer their phone to the TV -- and, while male users are not far behind, the survey also found that 55 percent of men regularly use their devices for watching videos.
An earlier Google survey published in February showed that as well as for watching TV, Indian smartphone owners use their devices to go online more often than their US counterparts, with 56 percent of owners using their devices to access the web multiple times a day, compared with 53 percent of Americans. Indian users also ranked highly when it came to using social media with 76 percent of smartphone owners using their devices to access sites such as Facebook, compared with 54 percent in the US.