New Delhi, October 8, 2012: An indigenous tablet outsells big name global brand leaders Samsung and Apple in the India market, finds a study by CyberMedia Research.
In its India Quarterly Media Tablet Market Review for 2Q 2012, CMR says the overall India Tablet market recorded sales of 0.55 million units, with Micromax leading with an 18.4% share, followed by Samsung at second position with 13.3% and Apple at third position with 12.3%, in terms of sales (unit shipments).
The India Tablet market though still nascent has become competitive due to entry of new vendors with entry level offerings. Close to 90 vendors launched their tablets till 2Q 2012.The Average Selling Price of the tablets in 2Q 2012 has dropped to around Rs 13,000 from this in the first quarter of 2012. There are a number of vendors in early 2012 who launched their products in the Rs 5,000-10,000 price range.
Says Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice: "During 2Q 2012, 47.4% of tablet sales were from new entrants in the market with a strong focus on addressing application areas in the Education and Entertainment segments. This trend demonstrates clearly that vendors are positioning their devices at India's youth."
Some of the key trends in terms of specifications of media tablets in India noted in 2Q 2012 are:
Connectivity: WiFI 69.6%; Display: 7” 79.7% ; OS: Android87.5%; Processor Speed: 1 Ghz 45.9%; RAM: 512 MB 59.7%. An overwhelming 83.5% do not have a call facility.
"As Android devices become increasingly popular with users across the world, competition is increasing in the India Tablets market with more and more vendors launching devices based on the Android OS. The share of devices based on other operating systems like Windows, iOS and QNX are expected to rise in future in view of the recent announcement of the Microsoft Windows Surface Tablet, the global launch of the Apple iPad 3 and reduction in BlackBerry Playbook prices",Faisal further added.
"Going forward we see vendors launching segments specific segments such as Healthcare, Retail and e-Governance. In terms of tablet use cases, the popular categories are Internet browsing, Email, Entertainment, Gaming, Social Networking, Information (Cricket, Flights etc). Clearly, the Indian user is also taking to the Tablet as a content consumption device", adds Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.