Tablet sales to remain flat in India in 2014: report

Driven by strong demand for low-cost models, tablet PC sales in India were up 56.4 per cent year-on-year to 4.14 million units in 2013, according to research firm IDC.

In 2012, tablet PC sales stood at 2.66 million units, the firm said in a statement yesterday.

IDC projects tablet sales to be flat in 2014.

Samsung was the market leader with 18.7 per cent share, followed by Micromax (8.9 per cent) and Apple (7.5 per cent).

In the October-December quarter, sales stood at 751,954 units.

According to IDC, while H1 2013, saw substantial growth in tablet volumes, driven largely by low-end devices, the market saw contraction in the second half.

It added despite strong festive season demand, spending on tablets was down in H2 2013 with consumer adoption approaching early stages of maturity on the device category.

According to IDC research manager Karan Thakkar, the government mandate on BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification, mixed with growing popularity of phablets would likely obstruct the growth in the tablet category.

However, there had been an uptake in the adoption of tablets among commercial users.

According to IDC, the market for tablet computers in India showed signs of deceleration with a growth of 56 per cent year-on-year for calendar year 2013.

The tablet computers industry had expected a 100-per cent growth rate in 2013, but was slowed by the growing popularity of phablets.

According to Thakkar, the popularity of phablets had crossed over the demand for 7-inch tablets.

He added, first-time users latching onto such devices were now looking to move to products that offered better experience in terms of life span and quality.