An average Indian smartphone user spends about two-and-half hours a day on the handset, dedicating more time to entertainment and internet activities than to voice calls and text messages, says a survey.

According to a Nielsen-Informate Mobile Intelligence survey, Indian smartphone user spends 72 per cent of the time on activities such as gaming, entertainment, applications (apps) and internet related content. The remaining 28 per cent of the time is used for voice calls and text messaging, it added.

"Today, younger Indians for instance, prefer texting and chat over voice communications and understanding this behaviour better can define data consumption and customer acquisition strategies for operators and handset providers," Nielsen India Managing Director (Media) Farshad Family said.

India's rapidly growing mobile user base presents marketers and businesses with an opportunity to improve the precision with which they reach out to the new Indian consumer, he added.

According to the study, while those in the age group of 15-24 years were spending about three hours a day on their smartphones, those in the over 31 year category spent about two hours.

Also, the younger smartphone users (15-25 years) spend two hours on browsing and entertainment compared to one hour in the other category (over 31 years).

Time spent on chat and SMS stood at about 31 minutes for the younger users against 15 minutes by the other category.

According to the survey, 15-25 year olds spend about half an hour on other mundane activities like contact search and alarms, while it is 45 minutes in the case of those over 31 years.

It also found that 68 per cent of the 15-24 year olds used a chat app last month as compared to 42 per cent for the 31 year old and above category.

Market research firm Nielsen and telecom industry tracking firm Informate Mobile Intelligence have entered into a strategic alliance to tap mobile insights and analytics for marketers and the industry.

The alliance, 'Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights', will bring together Nielsen consumer and marketing expertise with Informate's technology and domain expertise.

"On-device metering is a pioneering technology that will for the first time give advertisers, content developers and telecom players an insight into how the mobile consumer is evolving," Informate Mobile Intelligence President Kedar Sohoni said.

For instance, according to the survey, data usage for 3G users was close to 44 per cent more than 2G users. An Android user installs an average of 19 apps in a month compared to 10 apps for a Symbian user.

"These analytics combined with Nielsen's expertise in consumer understanding will offer marketers an unmatched view of a powerful new medium," Sohoni added.