Indian tablet market grows 7% in Q1 of 2016

The Dollar Business Bureau

Tablet PCs sales in India increased by 7 percent to 0.91 million units during the period January-March 2016 as compared to the same period last year, a market research report specified.

DataWind is leading the market with its share at 34.2 percent, recording a sequential growth of 37 percent, followed by Samsung at 21 percent. The third position is of Pantel (partner of BSNL), which has a market share of 20 percent. Micromax and Lenovo have a market share of 10 percent and 4 percent, respectively, according to Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review 2016 by CyberMedia Research (CMR).

Wi-Fi-enabled devices witnessed an increase of about 48 percent, while the demand for 3G and 4G devices saw a decline, the report added.

Commenting on the report, Krishna Mukherjee, Analyst at CMR, said, “A lot of steps like free Internet bundling, partnerships with e-commerce companies helped Datawind to capture the number one spot in the market. Mass production for its enterprise customers and better online presence were some of the reasons that helped the company to beat the multinationals such as Samsung, as the Korean company primarily focuses on the Rs.30,000 and above segment only, resulting in low sales.”

Tanvi Sharma, another Analyst at CMR said, “The demand for smartphones with large screen sizes has been increased and this resulted in a slight growth of the tablets market. In addition, customers are demanding tablets under the price band of Rs.5,000 and there are very little margin for dealers.”

Tablets are not easily upgradable just like smartphones and this is the main disadvantage, she added.

Suneet Singh Tuli, President and CEO, DataWind, said that the company has sold a record number of tablets in the first quarter due to high demand from the consumers.