India tablet shipment sluggish in Q1 2016

Decline in consumer interest in slate tablet form factor, rapid growth of large screen smartphones cause slowdown

Decline in consumer interest in the slate tablet form factor and rapid growth of large screen smartphones (phablets) caused the tablet market to slow down. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Indian tablet market in CY Q1 2016 remained flat over previous quarter with total shipments of 0.86 million units (including slate and detachable form factors).

However, shipments grew by a marginal 1.3 per cent over the same period last year.

Tablet market in CY 2016 is expected to be stagnant in India but is likely to witness changing trends like healthy growth in commercial segment, migration to higher screen slate tablets and increase in adoption of 4G based tablets.

“Detachables are expected to ramp up swiftly with majority traction coming from affordable windows based devices. Also, with Apple launching iPad pro 9.7, iOS is likely to gain share in detachables category this year”, said Navkendar Singh, senior research manager, IDC India.

Detachables traction continued in Q1 2016 with triple digit year-over-year growth, although it was on low base as uptake in this form factor began mainly from Q2 2016. “Windows based detachables continue to account over 70 per cent share, however Apple’s recent foray into this segment has garnered them to clock decent numbers given the premium price of their products. Although, continued long-term success may prove challenging as it plays in higher entry price point and iOS is yet to prove its enterprise-readiness unlike Microsoft” said Kartik J, senior market analyst, IDC India.

Micromax continued to lead detachables category accounting for more than one-third of total shipments in Q1 2016. “Smartphone vendors constitute more than half of detachables. Their strong understanding of mobile ecosystem and the volume achieved from their smartphone product lines would allow them to aggressively compete in this new computing segment”, added Karthik.

Among tablet vendors, Datawind continued to top the market share with 27.6 percentage share as shipment grew at a healthy 33.5 per cent over previous quarter. Vendor’s shipments doubled year-on-year showing a sharp trajectory in last one year.

Samsung sustained its second place with vendor share of 15.2 percentage in Q1 2016. Shipments dipped marginally by 3.7 per cent over previous quarter but grew 5.1 per cent over Q1 2015.  Entry level Galaxy Tab models continue to be volume runners for Samsung in Slate tablets. However, vendor began to face stiff competition in premium detachable segment from Apple and Microsoft in Q1 2016.

Lenovo being the only PC vendor in Top 5 moved up to third position in Q1 2016 with a market share of 13.6 percentage. Q1 2016 shipment grew at a healthy 30.5 per cent over the same period last year while dipped marginally over Q4 2015.

Micromax slipped to fourth place as shipments dip further in Q1 2016 by 27 percent over previous quarter to hold the market share of 11.3 percentage.