Indian tablet market indicated early signs of recovery in Q2, 2014 after taking a sharp hit in the past couple of quarters. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), tablet market shipments in India stood at 0.86 million units in Q2, 2014 — a 9% quarter-on-quarter growth over Q1, 2014.
“This recovery was fuelled by multiple factors. Business sentiments have shown improvement post elections and near term prospects are anticipated to remain better too. Further, traditional PC OEMs have started making big inroads in the tablet market and most of this success is led by leveraging their vast expanded reach through multiple distribution points,” said Karan Thakkar, Senior Market Analyst – IDC India.
Operating System: Android continues to be the most preferred Operating system. With 89.6% market share Android is expected to sail above 80% mark over the next few years. Windows OS is gaining ground too. However, much of these volumes are currently being driven by the spurt in enterprise buying.
Screen size: Tablets with screen size 7-8 inch contributed to 88% of the overall market in Q2, CY2014. IDC expects dominance of the a fore mentioned screen size to continue. However on the low volume side, tablets with screen size 10-11inch grew by 54% in Q2, CY2014.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, August 2014 the top 3 vendors are Samsung, Micromax and Apple.
Samsung: With 19% market share Samsung stood at the first spot. Majority of its volume is driven by sub $200 voice calling tablets.
Micromax: Strong performance in Q2 2014 allowed Micromax to tip Apple to the second spot.
Apple: With 9% market share. Apple stood at the third spot. More than 60% of the overall iPad volume is being supported by their iPad mini.
“The combined share of PC OEMs in the India tablet market is expected to beat industry growth in the coming quarters,” added Thakkar
IDC India Forecast
According to Kiran Kumar, Research Manager – Client Devices, IDC India, improved discretionary spends by end users and festive buying is expected to drive growth in the tablet market in the coming quarters. IDC anticipates this to be well supported by the optimism witnessed around enterprise IT spending in the recent past.
IDC further highlights that, “Despite inconsistencies, smaller importers continue to remain successful in a highly price sensitive market and hence branded players should be cautious of any distractions.”