Samsung maintains lead, 3G tablets buck the trend

NEW DELHI, INDIA: A new CMR research has shown that the tablet market in India declined by 9.2 percent in terms of unit shipment in CY2014, vis-a-vis CY2013.

The report titled India Annual Tablets Market Review, CY2014, noted that 3.89 million tablets were sold during the period. However, the reported noted that the 3G tablet segment grew 43.5 percent over the previous year. Despite the decline, the new report threw-up interesting data urging tablet manufacturers target rising opportunities in the enterprise and hi-tech consumers.

According to the report, vendors collectively shipped 1.93 million 3G tablets, accounting for 49.7 percent of the overall tablet unit shipment.

Among the vendors, Samsung retained the lead with 19.2 percent market share, followed by Datawind and Micromax respectively.

Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst, Telecom Practice, CMR, said, “Enterprises contributed about 21 percent of the total tablet PC unit shipments during CY2014. This, coupled with the availability of Windows-based devices helped mainstream players like Lenovo, HP and Dell to make strong inroads in the category.”

He however, cautioned that while the year 2015 would be challenging for Samsung, Datawind and Micromax, it would also throw up a challenge to Google to maintain its dominance in the Android OS category; especially as more and more enterprises were adopting Windows-based tablet devices.

Meanwhile, Sachin Mehta, analyst, Tablet PCs, CMR, expressed concern over the declining trends in tablet PC shipments in the consumer segment.

According to him, “The tablet PC market grew at a fast pace in the first few years. Industry players also expected this trend to continue unabated, but were not prepared for the huge deluge of Phablets that are now dominating the small form factor market segment. Tablet manufacturers need to innovate and re-invent not only their products but also their marketing campaigns targeted at specific vertical industries."

Mehta observed that the tablet manufacturers should discontinue the production of 7-inch devices and move to large screen offerings, with great technologies and focus on the meeting the content consumption needs of the entertainment, gaming, education and other such verticals.