The tablet story is not turning out to be as rosy as manufacturers would have liked. The India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review from CyberMedia Research (CMR) shows that between January and March 2014, 746,463 Tablets were shipped, but only 11 of the 30 vendors had volumes of more than 20,000 units. This is a year on year drop of 17.5 per cent and drop of 27.7 per cent compared to the previous quarter.
Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said the results were, however, very much in line with their expectations. “BIS certification issues had a temporary impact. However, rise in popularity of Phablets has diminished the significance of tablets among potential consumers, particularly in the sub Rs 15,000-20,000 price category.?
He said the hopes of the tablet industry are now pegged high on enterprises, which accounted for 22.1 per cent shipements in the quarter. “However, the challenge there remains bringing to market solutions-oriented tablets rather than plain computing and general content consumption devices. As vendors launch more solutions-oriented devices, with a mix of software and hardware improvisations, we should see Tablets gaining adoption within the enterprise segment?, Faisal added.
Among vendors, Samsung continues to lead with a 24.9 per cent market share, followed by Datawind with 15.9 per cent.
Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said Samsung’s leadership primarily due to its “diverse product portfolio with offerings at various price points, screen sizes and connectivity perspective”. Powered by strong slaes of the iPad Mini, Apple is back in the top three after a gap of almost a year. It commands 102 per cent of the sales.
?Today, the India market has only 30 players competing in the Tablet PC segment, as compared to an all-time high of 68 during 2Q CY 2013. This shows that the India Tablets market has seen consolidation in recent quarters, as all the players who launched products could not generate sufficient sales to sustain operations. Going forward, it will be interesting to watch how the 7-inch Tablet PC market, which currently contributes close to 80% of total sales, will emerge from the expected stiff face-off from Phablets,? Tarun concluded.
