Tablets , the new battleground in India, says CyberMedia Research

01st September 2011
 Tablets , the new  battleground in India, says CyberMedia Research
Tablet mahayudh ( battle) in India: the winners

Samsung tablet  takes lion’s share, iPad far behind. Installed PCs in India cross 60 million
Market intelligence firm CyberMedia Research expects tablets to become the new battleground as major MNC and India vendors and operators race to capture a share of this emerging market. In the first five months of launch in India nearly 85000 units were sold until March 2011. The first tablet computer was launched in India in November 2010. Since then, the market saw a slew of launches from both MNC and Indian players.
While models like Cisco's Cius and RIM’s Blackberry Playbook tablets are focused on the enterprise user segment, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Reliance 3G Tab are focused on the consumer segment. (Reliance 3G Tab manufactured by ZTE, retails at Rs. 12,999 per unit).

Samsung with 84.7% accounted for the lion’s share of 85,000 tablets sold in India between November 2010 and March 2011, with the indigenous brand Olive (8.2%), beating the global leader Apple (5.9%) for second place.

In 2011 alone Tablet launches in India included international brands Acer, Asus, Dell, HTC, Motorola, Rim Blackberry and Viewsonic -- and local brands Accord, Beetel, Binatone, Creative, HCL, Infibeam, Jetking, MSI, Reliance, Spice and Wespro Digital.

"As telecom carriers started offering 3G services in India since early 2011, the enhanced connect speeds are expected to boost usage of data services by subscribers. For tablets to become a common man's device, the data usage tariffs for 3G services need to be brought down even further” says Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President, Research and Advisory Services,CyberMedia Research.

In related findings, CyberMedia Research expects personal computer sales in India to accelerate further by 14.0% in 2012, leading to sales of 12.71 million units… up from 11.15 million in 2011 and 10 million unit sales in 2010.
The combined installed base of desktop and notebook Personal Computers in India is estimated to have crossed 52 million units as of December 31, 2010. This translates into one computer for every 25 Indians, doubling the per capita PC availability in just four years.

"The future growth of the India PC market will be driven by adoption of new form factors such as LED monitors in the commercial desktop space, netbooks, ultra lightweight notebooks and tablet computers in the portable space,” feels Banerjee. Sep 1 2011