Bharti Airtel claims to have registered 2.5 million downloads for its Application Stores launched last month.

Interestingly the top 5 cities contributing to downloads include Surat, Udaipur, Pune, mangalore and Thiruvanathapuram in that order. In terms of applications, the top 5 categories include Social Networking, Lifestyle, Books, Entertainment and Games. Phones priced in the range of Rs 5000 are seen downloading the most.

“When we opened the doors to Airtel App Central - India’s first mobile application store- we were confident that we had a strong and relevant offer. Our customers have confidently walked in, sampled and purchased applications which have since made their mobile phones smarter and enriched their lives with added entertainment or networking or productivity. Airtel will continue to lead the mobile apps innovation in the country offering customers an experience that will reinvent what they can do with their basic phones,” said Atul Bindal, President-Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel.

Airtel says that unlike global trends where smartphones are triggering application downloads, in India feature-phones are driving the popularity of app stores.