"Raise your hands how many of you use apps on your mobile phones..." - Throw this question to any crowd and you are likely to find quite a few hands shooting up in the air. Quite a few quizzical looks too, but let's ignore them for now, shall we?

As the number of mobile app downloads keep on increasing all across the world - can India be left behind? Nope! Indian mobile users are joining the race with their European and American counterparts in downloading more apps than ever. Recently, handset mogul Nokia conducted an Appiness study, to check the prospects of the mobile app market in India. As Nokia officials analyzed the impact of mobile apps on a consumer's behavior, they understood that almost 58% of smartphone users in India firmly believe that mobile apps benefit their individual lives in a variety of ways. And that's not all, here's more of what the market surveyors found (of course, about Indian mobile customers strictly):

• While more than 77% of people in India have up to 30 apps on their smartphones or iPads, more men are likely to download an app (almost 93%) as compared to women (about 87%).

• The most popular app categories among Indian smartphone users are music and social networking tools (41% each), followed by business and photo/personalization (27% and 22% respectively).

• Like most countries, here in India too it is the younger generation that leads in app usage. A majority of 18-25 year olds are downloading and using all kind of apps, but their favorite seems to be social networking apps.

• Most iPhone and Android users in India frequently rely on apps throughout the day (almost 50% of them).

So, what do you guys think? Isn't India really bitten by the Appiness bug?