India ships 10,000 Tablets every day to notch up total shipments of 905,000 during January-March 2013

Overall Shipments record a growth of 159% YoY, but a marginal dip of 18% QoQ

Datawind leads the market, with Micromax and Apple coming in at #2 and #3 respectively; Top 5 vendors make up nearly 59% of Tablet shipments

Indian consumer has no bias against domestic brands; only Apple amongst international brands figures in Top 3 vendors during the quarter

According to CMR’s India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review, 1Q (January-March) 2013, June 2013 release announced today, over 905,000 Tablets were sold (shipped) in the quarter by as many as 53 domestic and international vendors. However, only nine vendors shipped in significant volumes of more than 20,000 units during the period. The overall growth in shipments of Tablets in the India market registered an 158.96% year-on-year (1Q CY 2013 over 1Q CY 2012) growth, but a marginal 17.57% quarter-on-quarter (1Q CY 2013 over 4Q CY 2012) dip due to seasonal factors.

Commenting on the results, Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice stated, “The continued long term growth in shipments of Tablets in the India market further points to the fact that a large proportion of first time users of computers in emerging markets like India are getting to experience computing through this highly portable, converged form factor.”

“The performance of the India Tablets market is in line with global trends, where shipments of traditional computing devices such as desktop PCs and notebook PCs are seeing a relative deceleration, whereas Tablet shipments witness a surge, driven by consumer demand.”

“Although the 1Q CY 2013 Tablet shipment numbers are marginally lower compared to 4Q CY 2012, but this is not a substantial gap and may be attributed to seasonality. The country continued to witness Tablet shipments of more than 10,000 units a day during the quarter, which is a reason to cheer,” Faisal further opined.

Tablets and the Indian Consumer

“Another bright spot, particularly for domestic vendors is that the Indian consumer has shown no particular bias against local Tablet brands as was presumed all along. Local brands did well during 1Q 2013, and while some may argue that these brands are not purely local, but the reality is that in today’s globalised economy, it does not make business sense to try and completely produce a product out of a single country or region. There are many advantages to be gained by tapping into the diversified global ESDM supply chain to produce the ‘best’ product for the target customer at the optimal price point,” Faisal concluded.

Dwelling on individual vendor performances, Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said, “Datawind and Micromax have figured amongst the Top 3 India Tablet vendors since 4Q CY 2012, while Apple was No. 2 for CY 2012.  These players continued to maintain their leadership ranks during 1Q CY 2013. This trend points to a sort of polarization of India Tablet user segments – one set looks primarily for performance and best-in-class build quality and typically opts for the high-end Apple iPad, while the other segment looks for a wide range of features at an affordable price point and opts for brands like Datawind and Micromax.”

“Although 3G-enabled Tablets made up only 23% of total sales during 1Q CY 2013, we expect this to grow substantially in the coming quarters. This is on account of new launches of ‘bottom-of-the-pyramid’ form factors by vendors who prefer to bring to market products with both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity at affordable price points. This also allows vendors to earn higher profit margins on their devices. In fact, this trend could be responsible for Samsung’s absence from the Top 3 list, as customers are able to purchase 3G-enabled devices at the same price-point at which Samsung offers Wi-Fi only devices to consumers,” Tarun concluded.