Datawind and Samsung emerge as the leading players in the tablet PC segment in 2015 Q4. Driven by government purchases, tablet PC sales in India increased by 13% to become 4.4 million in 2015. The demand for cellular access devices is rising in India, where 75% of the gadgets sold in 2015 incorporated support for cellular Internet access technologies.
The top 5 tablet PC brands accounted for 66% of the market share last year. Cumulatively 66 brands sold tablets in 2015. However, at the end of the year only 18 companies were selling tablets.
Tanvi Sharma, CMR (CyberMedia Research) Analyst for Tablet Devices said the slight increase in tablet sales could be due to some government deals. But with increasing demand for phablets/smartphones the industry needs to make them more exciting and introduce features that draw in customers.
Sharma said the current trend is convertible tablets which have a detached keyboard. Consumers prefer devices costing less than Rs.5,000 this year. Last year tablets costing between Rs.5,000 and Rs.10,000 were popular.
Tablet market in 2015
Tablet market in 2015 had Samsung, Datawind and Micromax taking the top three positions in terms of sales. Android was the leading choice of OS with 92% share. Windows share rose by 1% giving it 3%share. 4G tablets made up 7% of the total tablets sold.
Tablet Sales in Q4 of 2015
In the last quarter of 2015, Datawind, Samsung and Pantel occupied the top three positions. Top 5 brands cornered 81% of the market share. Datawind was the market leader with a 24% share while Samsung and Pantel Technologies followed with 18% and 17% market share respectively. Micromax occupied the fouth spot with 15% market share. Lenovo occupied the fifth spot with 8% market share. iPad sales decreased by 22%.
Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst CMR Telecoms said that they expect 2016 to be even more difficult for the tablet market. The industry cannot rely on government deals alone for growth. They need to develop tablets as solutions for the customers. This is the perfect time as 4G is poised to grow significantly in India.
