Micromax leads Samsung, Apple in India tablest PC sales

Buoyed by the entry of new tablet vendors and new offerings from existing vendors at low to medium prices, Indians bought 0.55 million tablet PCs between April and June 2012 - or over 6,000 per day - which translates into a growth of 59 per cent over the previous quarter and growth of  673 per cent during the same three months in 2011.

The top three brands sold by volume were: Micromax, Samsung and Apple.

According to a new study today, India Quarterly Media Tablet Market Review for 2Q 2012 released today by CyberMedia Research, the overall Indian tablets market werte led by Micromax with a 18.4 per cene share, followed by Samsung with 13.3 per cent and Apple with 12.3 per cent, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during the 2Q 2012.

Table 1. India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review for 2Q 2012

Though the Indian tablets market is still at a nascent stage but at the same time has become competitive due to the entry of new vendors with entry level offerings. Close to 90 vendors launched their tablets till 2Q 2012.

The average sales value of tablets in 2Q 2012 dropped to little above Rs13,000 from Rs26,000 in 1Q 2012, as a majority of vendors in early 2012 launched their products in the Rs5,000-10,000 price range.

According to Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst, CMR telecoms practice, "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."

Some of the key trends in terms of specifications of media tablets in India noted in 2Q 2012 are in the table below.

Table 2. India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review for 2Q 2012*: Trending

Faisal adds, "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, ".

Tarun Pathak, analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice, "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", Pathak adds.