New Delhi, Aug 12 : A new Mobile Industry Consumer Insights (MICI) Survey, conducted by CyberMedia Research (CMR) in association with TECNO, the global premium smartphone brand of Transsion Holdings on Wednesday revealed that consumers in Aspirational Bharat saw a 120 per cent spike in smartphone usage for productivity compared to pre Covid-19 levels. "The smartphone is a key daily driver for consumers living in cities and towns beyond Tier I. We call this the Aspirational Bharat. What the survey highlights is how smartphone usage is changing, during the lockdown and in the neo-normal, cutting across use cases, such as productivity, personal development, and leisure. In preparation for the new normal, consumers in Aspirational Bharat are seeking smartphones that offer larger screen size and much better battery life," Prabhu Ram, Head- Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, said in a statement. According to the survey, during Covid-19 lockdown (March 25-May 31), smartphone usage spiked by 50 per cent, with smartphone usage for work surging more than 100 per cent. Smartphone users in Aspirational Bharat depend on their smartphones to empower their professional and personal life with 84 per cent of consumers depend on their smartphones, for instance, for accessing the information on government schemes, weather patterns, and market linkage information for farm produce. "The CMR MICI Survey reinforces the fact that TECNO has a sense of the pulse of its aspirational consumers. And with our SPARK series, which focuses on battery, display, and camera in the sub Rs 10,000 smartphone category is a testimony to TECNO's deep commitment of introducing products with segment-first features at a disruptive price point where the consumer is more ready to experiment with the product," Arijeet Talapatra, CEO, TRANSSION India added. Meanwhile, 83 per cent of consumers use their phones for content consumption including creating and consuming short-form videos, music and videos. Beyond work, consumers spent increased time on their phones for consuming content, including video OTT (70 per cent) and audio OTT (60 per cent), and gaming (62 per cent). Around three in every seven users in Aspirational Bharat have started some new activities and hobbies during the period of lockdown. For instance, 21 per cent of the consumers have learnt new skills, 19 per cent have listened to music, while 18 per cent have taken up new hobbies on their phones. One in every three parents depends on their smartphone for facilitating their kid's online education during the lockdown. In addition, smartphone usage since June has witnessed two in every seven users (29 per cent) facing some challenges while working from home. One in every seven users (15 per cent) faced difficulty in managing work-life-balance as well as a productivity issue. The top three smartphone features that consumers have started relying more in the new normal are Camera (61 per cent), battery life (57 per cent) and sound quality (51 per cent). Some consumers faced problems with their smartphones Â? phone overheating (58 per cent), the limited screen size (47 per cent) and swift battery drainage (46 per cent) were the top three challenges. When it comes to their next smartphone purchase, consumers are looking for smartphones that offer long battery life (54 per cent) and large screen size (53 per cent) for viewing to cope with neo normal. /IANS