Indians prefer laptops, smartphones over tablets for Internet access: Deloitte

"69 percent of the respondents say that they use laptops to access Internet, while 64 percent use their smartphones. Interestingly, only 24 percent use tablets to access the Net," an online survey conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited said.

The survey was conducted among 2,000 consumers in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad.

"About 60 percent of smartphone users say they use the mobile network for data access. As for laptop users, about 80 percent of them access the Internet through fixed broadband, the survey added.

(Also see: Indian mobile Internet users to touch 164.8 million by 2015: KPMG)

The survey said despite availability of data plans providing Internet access to mobile users, a significant portion of traffic from mobile devices has moved to Wi-Fi connections.

However, mobile network remains the key connectivity channel for smartphones users, it said.

Deloitte said data is one of the main reasons for a 'bill shock' among consumers.

"More than 60 percent of the respondents say that there have been times when their bills have been higher than what they expected over the past 12 months," it said.

Data is followed by roaming charges for a bill shock among 46 percent respondents, while 33 percent respondents say it is due to exceeding call allowances and 32 percent said it is because of exceeding their mobile Internet usage allowance.

"Deloitte sees that reduction in roaming charges lately will further tilt the trend towards data. Competition and a saturated mobile voice market has forced operators to offer very competitive capped data packages, which has led to affordability of data plans," it added.

For purchasing a smartphone, battery life remains the top influencing factor in consumers' mind, followed by design, reliability, brand, operating system and camera quality.

As for tablets, brand is the most important factor, followed by reliability of the device, operating system, battery life and design.