According to CMR’s India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review, 1Q (January-March) 2013, India ships 10,000 Tablets every day to make up to total shipments of 905,000 during January-March 2013. As many as 53 domestic and international vendors sold (shipped) tablets in Q1, 2013, out of which only nine vendors shipped in significant volumes of more than 20,000 units during that period, the report said.
However the good news is that the domestic brand, Datawind, the maker of Aakash tablet, leads the market followed by Micromax and Apple coming in at #2 and #3 respectively. Britain-based hardware manufacturer Datawind accounts for 15.3% of the total tablets shipped (excludes shipments of Aakash tablet) during January-March 2013 while Micromax had 12.3% of the total market share in Q1 2013.
Commenting on the results, Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice stated, “The performance of the India Tablets market is in line with global trends, where shipments of traditional computing devices such as desktop PCs and notebook PCs are seeing a relative deceleration, whereas Tablet shipments witness a surge, driven by consumer demand.”
“Datawind and Micromax have figured amongst the Top 3 India Tablet vendors since 4Q CY 2012, while Apple was No. 2 for CY 2012. These players continued to maintain their leadership ranks during 1Q CY 2013,” Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said.
“Although 3G-enabled Tablets made up only 23% of total sales during 1Q CY 2013, we expect this to grow substantially in the coming quarters. This is on account of new launches of ‘bottom-of-the-pyramid’ form factors by vendors who prefer to bring to market products with both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity at affordable price points. In fact, this trend could be responsible for Samsung’s absence from the Top 3 list, as customers are able to purchase 3G-enabled devices at the same price-point at which Samsung offers Wi-Fi only devices to consumers,” Tarun concluded.
