Tablet Sales in India Soared in 2013, says IDC

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet  Tracker  data  for  CY 2013, the overall India Tablet shipments for CY 2013  stood  at  4.14  million  units representing a year-on-year growth of 56.4%  over  CY 2012. While 1H 2013 witnessed substantial growth in Tablet volumes  driven  largely  by low-end devices, the market observed contraction in the  second  half  of  2013. Despite a strong festive season demand, spending on  tablets  slowed  down  in 2H 2013 as the consumer adoption approached early  stages of maturity on this category of devices.

A  deep  dive  into the screen size trends highlights that there has been a  growing  acceptance for “phablets”, tablets with screen size of 8 < 9 inch. “The  popularity of phablets has in fact crossed over the demand for 7 inch  tablets.  For  a  price  conscious  market like India, it is about owning a  combination device, meeting the needs with one device instead of two. Also,  the  return rates on low cost 7 inch tablets have been unexplainably large.  First  time  users  latching  onto  such devices are now looking to move to  products  that  offer  better experience in terms of life span and quality” said, Karan Thakkar, Senior Market Analyst with IDC.

 Top Vendor Highlights:  

Samsung:  With  18.7%  market  share, Samsung outperformed its competitors  with  strong  presence  in  7  <  8  inch screen size. Despite a dominating  presence,  the  vendor has scaled down its volumes owing to changing market  dynamics.  Micromax: With 8.9% market share, Micromax retained its rank, primarily due  to their value for money proposition and concerted marketing efforts

Apple:  With 7.5% market share, Apple has shown significant growth in 7 < 8  inch  screen  size despite its niche positioning. iPad Mini was noted to be  well   accepted  by  the  market,  supported  by  instalment  payments  for  consumers.

 IDC Forecast  

IDC  anticipates  the overall Tablet market to remain flat in CY 2014. “The  Government  mandate on BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) Certification mixed  with the growing popularity of phablets is likely to obstruct the growth in  the tablet category”, said Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC.

However,  there  has  been  an  uptake  in  the adoption of tablets amongst  commercial  users. These are primarily meeting relevant needs in industries  such  as  financial  services,  healthcare,  media  and  education, amongst  others.  “Activities  such as interactive digital presentations, collecting  KYC  (Know  your  Customer)  documents,  and point-of-sale transactions are  typical use cases”, added Karan Thakkar.

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