Micromax leads Indian tablet market: Research report

CyberMedia Research report reveals that the number of tablet shipments has increased in the country in the second quarter of this year. The increase was 59 percent QoQ (quarter-on-quarter), and a mind-boggling 673 percent YoY (year-on-year). The research report attributes it primarily to the entry of new tablet vendors and the introduction of newer products from existing vendors in the low to medium price segment.
 Among its major findings, the report revealed that Micromax has come out on top, followed by the likes of Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc.





The report elaborates that in the Indian tablet market, Micromax enjoys the lead with an 18.4 percent share, followed by Samsung at second position with 13.3 percent, Apple at third position with 12.3 percent, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during the Q2 of 2012.


Putting numbers into perspective, the report found that the total tablet market in India registered a sales of 0.55 million units Q2 2012.

Importantly, the report found that although the Indian tablet market is at a nascent stage, it has become competitive, riding on the entry of new vendors with entry-level offerings. Interestingly, roughly 90 vendors launched their tablets till Q2 2012. “The ASV of the tablets in 2Q 2012 has dropped to little above INR 13,000 from INR 26,000 in 1Q 2012, as a majority of vendors in early 2012 launched their products in the INR 5,000-10,000 price range,” the report added.

According to Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice, “During 2Q 2012, 47.4% of tablet sales were from new entrants in the market with a strong focus on addressing application areas in the Education and Entertainment segments. The import of this stance clearly demonstrates that vendors are aiming to position their devices at India’s youth population.”

The report highlighted some key trends in terms of specifications of media tablets in India, as noted in Q2 of 2012. Connectivity-wise, Wi-Fi emerged as the trending option with 69.6 percent share. The 7-inch display category trended in the Q2 of 2012 with 79.7 percent share. Android, as it turns out emerged as the trending option for OS with a whopping 87.5 percent share.

“As Android devices become increasingly popular with users across the world, competition is increasing in the India Tablets 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”, Faisal further added.

“Going forward we see vendors launching devices for particular industry segments other than Education, such as Healthcare, Retail and e-Governance. In terms of tablet use cases, the popular categories are Internet browsing, Email, Entertainment, Gaming, Social Networking, Information (Cricket, Flights etc). Clearly, the Indian user is also taking to the Tablet as a content consumption device”, added Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.


Micromax emerges leader, followed by Samsung and Apple
The overall India Tablet market recorded sales of 0.55 million units in 2Q 2012. This was reported in the India Quarterly Media Tablet Market Review for 2Q 2012 released today by premier IT, Telecoms, Semiconductor & Electronics, Government, Entrepreneurship, Energy & Healthcare and User research firm CyberMedia Research.
In the overall India tablets market, Micromax leads with 18.4% share, followed by Samsung at second position with 13.3% and Apple at third position with 12.3%, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during the 2Q 2012.

Table 1.India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review for 2Q 2012*

Vendors	%Share
Micromax	18.4
Samsung	13.3
Apple	12.3

Feature	Trending	% Share
Connectivity	Wi-Fi	69.6
Display	7”	79.7
OS	Android	87.5
Processor Speed	1 Ghz	45.9
RAM	512 MB	59.7
Call Feature	No	83.5

*Source: CyberMedia Research (CMR) India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review, 2Q 2012, September 2012

Though the India Tablets market is still at a nascent stage but at the same time has become competitive due to entry of new vendors with entry level offerings. Close to 90 vendors launched their tablets till 2Q 2012.TheASVof the tablets in 2Q 2012 has dropped to little above INR 13,000 from INR 26,000 in 1Q 2012, as a majority of vendors in early 2012 launched their products in the INR 5,000-10,000 price range.

Trends

According to Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice, “During 2Q 2012, 47.4% of tablet sales were from new entrants in the market with a strong focus on addressing application areas in the Education and Entertainment segments. The import of this stance clearly demonstrates that vendors are aiming to position their devices atIndia’s youth population.”

Some of the key trends in terms of specifications of media tablets inIndianoted in 2Q 2012 are listed in the table below.

Table 2. India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review for 2Q 2012*: Trending

*Source: CyberMedia Research (CMR) India Quarterly Media Tablets Market Review, 2Q 2012, September 2012

“As Android devices become increasingly popular with users across the world, competition is increasing in the India Tablets 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”, Faisal further added.

“Going forward we see vendors launching devices for particular industry segments other than Education, such as Healthcare, Retail and e-Governance. In terms of tablet use cases, the popular categories are Internet browsing, Email, Entertainment, Gaming, Social Networking, Information (Cricket, Flights etc). Clearly, the Indian user is also taking to the Tablet as a content consumption device”, added Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

Notes for Editors

1)     CyberMedia Research (CMR) uses the term “shipments” to describe the number of Tablets leaving the factory premises for OEM sales or stocking by distributors and retailers. For the convenience of media, the term shipments has been replaced by ‘sales’ in the press release, but this reflects the market size in terms of units of tablets and not their absolute value. In the case of tablets imported into the country it represents the number leaving the first warehouse to OEMs, distributors and retailers. CMR does not track the number of tablets brought on their person by individual passengers landing on Indian soil from overseas destinations or ‘grey market’ tablets. CMR also does not include one-off, large institutional / government deals. These are, therefore, not part of the CMR numbers reported here.

2)     CMR tracks shipments of Tablets on a quarterly basis. However, as per convention, the market size may be reported on a calendar quarter basis where appropriate to the context; in all such cases this refers to an aggregated number for the three calendar months in the quarter to which the press release refers.