Indians prefer buying a 7-inch, Android-based tablets which are priced below Rs 10,000, according to a report from Cyber Media Research (CMR).
Nearly 91 per cent of the tablets sold in the third quarter of 2012 (July-Sept) were running on Android operating system and 78 per cent of the tablets had 7-inch screens, the report said.
Overall sales
The overall India tablets market recorded sales of 1.1 million units in the July-September period. Samsung led with a 23.9 per cent share, followed by Micromax with 15.3 per cent share and Datawind with a 12.3 per cent share.
The report said the average sales value of tablets in India was approximately Rs 13,200, but 63.5 per cent of all sales were below the Rs 10,000-mark.
Tarun Pathak, analyst, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice, said, “During fourth quarter 2012 and through 2013, we expect to see a change in the rankings, with global leaders like Apple and Google coming into their own, especially after the launch of the Apple Mini and Google Nexus range of media tablets, respectively.”
The tablet PC market is increasingly becoming one of the most dynamic consumer electronics product categories in India. For the year 2013, CMR expects that Windows 8-based tablets will be the main highlight in the market. Further, the market is expected to increase by at least 100 per cent in 2013 from 3 million units sold in 2012 to 6 million.
Key drivers
The key drivers for this are a large number of launches by manufacturers eyeing the India consumer market for mobile computing and data communication products, as well as the demand expected to be generated via enterprise adoption of tablets. In case, large deals are announced by vendors for supplies to the Central / State Governments for distribution to students, the forecast number of tablet sales for 2013 could easily exceed 6 million units.
Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice said, “To my mind, two key developments are going to change the India media tablets market significantly – one is the availability of Windows 8-based devices and the adoption of tablets by enterprises for serious and real business applications.”
“Tablets will most likely then come to be considered a mainstream device and be seen as much more than a novelty or for restricted use in the education, entertainment and infotainment segments. This will signal the arrival of the tablet as a mainstream business device,” he added.