Q1 Tablet shipment down 17.5% y-o-y

Samsung continues to retain its position, Apple back in top 3 ranking

Popularity of phablets and regulatory hurdles impacted the overall tablet shipments in the first quarter of 2014.

Tablet shipments for the first quarter of CY2014 at 746,463 saw a dip of 17.5 per cent year-on-year.

According to CMR’s India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review, 1Q (January-March) 2014, the total shipment of tablets was down 27.7 per cent on sequential basis (quarter ended December 31, 2013) from 1,032,739.

The number of tablet vendors also went down to 30 from the earlier 68.

“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,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

“In such a scenario, the hopes of the Tablet industry are pegged high on enterprises. 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,” Kawoosa added.

Enterprises consumed around 22.1 per cent of the total Tablet shipments during 1Q CY 2014.

CMR started reporting the performance of Tablet shipments in the enterprise space separately, starting 3Q CY 2013.

Indian market also saw consolidation of vendors.

During the quarter only eleven vendors shipped in significant volumes of more than 20,000 units during the period.

Samsung continued to hold on to its position, followed by Datawind and Apple.  

“Apple is back in the ‘Top 3’ after almost a year on the back of an aggressive marketing campaign and strong sales of iPad Mini that contributed almost 60 per cent of Apple’s total India iPad shipments during 1Q CY 2014,” said Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

The market is still skewed towards the top three vendors who have a market share of 51 per cent.

“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,” Pathak said.

“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,” he said.

“Going forward, it will be interesting to watch how the 7-inch Tablet PC market, which currently contributes close to 80 per cent of total sales, will emerge from the expected stiff face-off from Phablets,” he added.