Micromax leads the tablet race in India

India tablet market sales touched 0.55 mn units for the second quarter

Invasion by new vendors and fall in entry-level pricing have driven the computer tablet market by over 50 per cent in India for the second quarter of the calendar year.

India tablet market sales touched 0.55 million units for the second quarter, recording a sequential increase of 59 per cent and a y-o-y increase of 673 per cent, said CyberMedia Research. The surprise revelation was domestic player Micromax, which led with 18.4 per cent market share, followed by Samsung (13.3 per cent) and Apple (12.3 per cent).

“During 2Q 2012, 47.4 per cent 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,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

The report also stated that the increase in shipments in the overall tablet market was mainly due to entry of new tablet vendors and introduction of offerings from existing vendors at low to medium price points.

Close to 90 vendors launched their tablets till 2Q 2012.The average selling value (ASV) of the tablets in 2Q 2012 has dropped to little above Rs 13,000 from Rs 26,000 in 1Q 2012, as a majority of vendors in early 2012 launched their products in the Rs 5,000-10,000 price range.

"Going forward we see vendors launching segments specific tablets 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", added Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.