2012: A year of myriad choices

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Led by consumer-centric features and applications, the Indian device market is poised to be flooded with affordable yet feature-rich computing devices. The domestic players have already geared up to propel their premium products.

Gautam Advani, EVP and head- mobility at HCL Infosystems, believes that both product categories will have their own recourse and chart a growth path in 2012. “The tablet PC is still a new category and there is a certain excitement amongst users and they will eagerly await more innovations,” he said.

Advani feels that the tablet devices are meant for data access on a larger screen while smartphones are about voice calling though they provide a limited browsing experience.

Smartphones to go smarter

Smartphones are expected to go sleeker and smarter, making even Kareena Kapoor envious of their looks. 2012 would witness device metamorphosis. The OEM's focus would be to produce slim and lightweight devices.

Features hold the key though applications would be more or less similar in all makes. Windows OS, cloud storage and near field communications (NFC) are some capabilities on which a section of vendors is banking upon.

For instance, Nokia in February this year announced that all its devices will be powered by Windows OS. Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 are well-placed products around this OS. Telecom equipment major Huawei has already made its presence felt with cloud phones.

The industry believes that out of the projected 5 billion mobile devices, 1 billion would be smartphones by 2015. The Indian smartphone market is expected to grow at 50 per cent CAGR for a period from 2010 till 2015.

Samsung through its Galaxy Note tries to carve a niche in the market. Despite glitches like power back-up and keypad, the company's optimism is high. Samsung is expected to unveil Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress in February 2012. The new Galaxy family device will incorporate 3D technology.

Smart devices from Indian manufacturers such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, Spice and G-Five might have greater acceptance in relatively smaller markets. Few of them have already announced their plans for 2012. Lava is all set to bring in two new smartphones.

Research In Motion (RIM) has launched seven smartphones in India since August 2011. BlackBerry Curve 8520 is the second highest selling smartphone in India, the company claims.

Sunil Lalvani, Director, Enterprise Sales at RIM India, said that they believe 2012 would enrich the experience of mobile computing with inventive range of devices, localized content, socially integrated applications and services built on new technologies.

RIM said it’ll come up with next generation BlackBerry 10 mobile platform in 2012. “It combines the best of BlackBerry and QNX for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets and will create excitement for consumers in a big way,” said Lalvani.

Wait..  more tablets are coming

The tablet PC market is in nascent stage in India. Constituting less than 5 per cent of the total PC shipments, the vendors are closely watching this space. It’s perhaps a new segment that has a long way to go.

The industry expects that 10 million tablets will be sold by the end of 2012. While Frost & Sullivan in its recent study said that the overall tablet PC user base is likely to grow at a CAGR of 107 percent and will reach 23.38 million by 2017.

The consumers have apparently tough choice whether to embrace noteboook or go for a tablet PC. The price war is inevitable. The global players promise an array of features, whilst the domestic vendors such as Beetel and LACS focus on affordable pricing.

Banking on broadband, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel have already forayed into this domain. The other Indian brands do not want to miss tablet bandwagon, and are expected to have their line-up ready before the dusk of 2012.

Cutting down from its premium price tag, Sony has recently announced Sony Tablet S for Rs 29,990 in India. The company bets high on PlayStation, which it said is first in the industry.

It’s a new category; therefore the company refrained from giving sales projections. Among Android OS tablet segment, the company aims to be on top in the market.

ASUS said that their focus will be to further widen the new segments of tablet PC. “In 2012, ASUS will continue to augment in terms of design and offering of new technologies. There will be seen an innovative enhancement with our every product roll out,” said Alex Huang, Country Head, System Business Group at ASUS India.