With lots of affordable home-grown tablet are being manufacturers and pushed to the market, they are becoming a must need gadget among Indian users. During the Q3 (July-September) 2012 alone 1.1 million units of tablet were sold India taking the overall India Tablets sales up to 3 million units by end 2012 says a recent study by CyberMedia Research.
According to a report from research firm CyberMedia Research, Samsung led the tablet market in India with a 23.9% share, followed by Micromax at second position with 15.3% share and Datawind at third position with a 12.3% share (excludes sales of Aakash tablets to Govt. of India), in terms of sales (unit shipments) during 3Q (July-September) 2012. During the 2Q 2012 Micromax was leading the market, followed by Samsung, but as 2012 going to end Micromax slipped to second position. There are close to 135 vendor in India who have launched their Tablets till 3Q 2012. Average Sales Value of Tablets in India during 3Q 2012 was approximately Rs 13,200, while 63.5% of all sales were below the Rs 10,000 mark.
Indians are keen on the features they need in a tablet, WiFi connectivity being the most trending among them followed by 7inch display size and world’s popular Android OS. Here the list of key trends in terms of specifications of media tablets in India noted in 3Q (July-September) 2012 –
Outlook for Indian Tablet market in 2013
- Windows 8 based Media Tablets will be the main highlight in the market.
- Enterprises will see increasing adoption of Tablet PCs as part of the larger trend towards mobility.
- OEMs are expected to announce LTE / LTE-ready Tablets for the India market in 2013 as telecom operators start deploying 4G LTE connectivity across India.
- There could be some cleansing in the market for sub-INR 5,000 Tablets. 2013 is likely to see some of the players in this segment closing shop due to lack of market acceptability and increasing expectations of consumers, where these devices are bound to fail.
- 2013 will see India Tablet markets crystallise around three price points Rs 5,000-10,000, Rs 15,000-20,000 and over Rs 35,000.
“I expect this to be the last quarter that will show the kind of ‘stereotype’ ranking results typical to the India market. During 4Q 2012 and through 2013, we expect to see a change in the rankings, with global leaders like Apple and Google coming into their own, especially after the launch of the Apple Mini and Google Nexus range of Media Tablets, respectively. These new devices closely match the Media Tablets already available from other leading OEMs in India, in terms of specifications and price levels. This is particularly true of Samsung. So it will be interesting to watch if potential buyers of Tablet PCs go for other MNCbrands or whether Samsung is able to retain their loyalty,” commented Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.
India Tablets market has become one of the key drivers of data/content consumption in the country. Its excepted that tablet sales will double or more in 2013 as numerous OEMs eye the India market for consumer and enterprise demand plus government business.