Tablet sales up 59% in Q2, Micromax leads the pack

The overall India Tablet market recorded sales of 0.55 million units in Q2 (quarter ended June 30) of 2012 according a report released by CyberMedia Research (CMR). This recorded a Q-o-Q increase of 59 per cent and Y-o-Y increase of 673 per cent.

In the overall India tablets market, Micromax leads with 18.4 per cent share, followed by Samsung with 13.3 per cent and Apple with 12.3 per cent, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during the Q2.

Though the India Tablets market is still at a nascent stage, it has become competitive due to entry of new vendors with entry level offerings. Close to 90 vendors launched their tablets till Q2. The average selling value  (ASV) of the tablets in Q2 2012 has dropped to little above Rs 13,000-26,000 in Q1 2012, as a majority of vendors in early 2012 launched their products in the Rs 5,000-10,000 price range.

What is trending?

According to Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice, "During Q2 2012, 47.4 per cent of tablet sales were from new entrants in the market with a strong focus on addressing application areas in the Education and Entertainment segments. This trend demonstrates clearly that vendors are positioning their devices at India's youth."

As Android devices become increasingly popular with users across the world, competition is increasing in the domestic  Tablet market with more and more vendors launching devices based on the Android OS. "The share of devices based on other operating systems like Windows, iOS and QNX are expected to rise in future in view of the recent announcement of the Microsoft Windows Surface Tablet, the global launch of the Apple iPad 3 and reduction in BlackBerry Playbook prices," Kawoosa added.

"Going forward we see vendors launching segments specific segments such as healthcare, retail and e-governance. In terms of tablet use, the popular categories are Internet browsing, e-mail, entertainment, gaming, social networking, Information (Cricket, Flights etc). Clearly, the Indian user is also taking to the Tablet as a content consumption device,"  Tarun Pathak, analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice, said.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)