India’s tablet market touches 3 million units in 2012, expected to double in 2013
Over 1.1 million tablets were shipped into India in the third quarter of 2012 (July-September), with the market size reaching 3 million units by the end of 2012, according to a Cyber Media Research report. The report, which relates shipments to sales, uses units leaving a vendor’s factory and legal imports to India to establish the overall market size and market share of vendors in this space. Of the 135 vendors selling tablets in the country, Samsung leads the pack with a 23.9 percent market share, followed by Micromax (15.3 percent) and DataWind (12.3 percent), according to the report.
According to CMR, the average selling value of tablets in India was Rs 13,200 but 63 percent of all sales happened in the sub-Rs 10,000 price point indicating the absence of mid-end tablets. This should probably change in the fourth quarter report with vendors, especially Samsung, slashing prices of its tablets in the wake of the iPad mini launch in India.
While the report is not a clear indication of actual brand market and mind share in India, it does give a decent picture of where the market is heading from the vendor’s point of view. Of all the tablets shipped during the period, over 91 percent were running Android, the rest we believe being iOS and some version of Windows. Close to 80 percent of tablets shipped had a 7-inch display.
However, these trends are likely to change drastically in 2013 with the inclusion of Windows 8 tablets that could skew things a bit in Microsoft’s favor. However, with Android tablets scraping the bottom of the pricing pot, we reckon Android would still dominate the space in India.
The report indicates that the tablet market size would double in 2013, something that we agree with and probably believe it could grow at an even faster pace this year.
Photo Credit: Eshan Shetty
