India's Tablet Market is not as big as the smartphone market and in the last few years, the smartphone market has seen uphill while the tablet market saw the shipments decline. The same continues in the Q1 2018 as research firm CMR states that India's Tablet Market witnessed 10% decline when compared to Q4 2018. The report is part of CMR's Tablet PC Market. Analyst Menka Kumari at CMR stated that the first quarter was predictably slow as vendors focus on netting the previous stock, rather than focusing on getting fresh shipments. The tablet market was dominated by Lenovo, Samsung and Datawind. The report also stated that 4G tablet shipments in the country grew by 40% when compared to Q4 2017.
Lenovo now secured a market share of 23%, which is followed by Samsung with 21%, Datawind with 16% and iBall with 13%. Lenovo's introduction of tablets in the education segment, catering to Akash and FIITJEE students has helped the Chinese company grow its base. With Lenovo now moved out of top five smartphone brands in India, securing top position in the Tablet market will boost the company a little. Furthermore, the report added the launch of Lenovo's 4G tablet, the Lenovo Tab 4 series helped the 4G tablet shipments grow. It is also said that Samsung is largely growing in its Rs 15,000 price band of tablet market.
According to Menka Kumari, Analyst-IIG, CyberMedia Research, “Keeping in with the trends of 1Q over the past years, the first quarter was predictably slow. Vendors were busy clearing the previous stock than focusing on getting fresh shipments. Interestingly, a new breed of enterprise users, including restaurant managers, traffic police, salesmen, courier men, and e-commerce delivery boys, have emerged as an attractive bet for tablet companies. This segment will witness further traction in the coming quarters, with new enterprise use cases springing forth.”
Datawind, on the other hand, is gaining the market share because of its strong sales in the education sector. “Datawind’s strategy of keeping its products cost-effective has encouraged students to use them. The retail market has mostly been dominated by Datawind and iBall which is notably not present in the B2B market,” said Kumari.
CMR predicts that in the coming quarter, the B2B tablet market will gain mostly on the back of government initiatives in the education sector. Central and State governments, such as Bihar and Gujarat Governments, have been promoting digital-led education through various government schemes, enabling colleges and schools of learning to go for tablets, which could boost the tablet shipments in India.
