Pantel Technologies emerges as the leader, with Samsung, Micromax, Datawind and iBall in top 5
Top 5 vendors make up nearly 70% of Tablet PC shipments
Gurgaon/New Delhi, December 18, 2015: According to CMR’s India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review, 3Q (July-September) 2015, December 2015 release announced today, nearly 1.36 million Tablet PCs were sold (shipped) in the quarter by as many as thirty-eight (38) domestic and international vendors. However, only twelve (12) vendors shipped in significant volumes of more than 20,000 units each during the period. The overall increase in shipments of Tablets in the India market registered a 31.8% growth year-on-year (3Q CY 2015 over 3Q CY 2014) and a 27.1% growth quarter-on-quarter (3Q CY 2015 over 2Q CY 2015). This increase can be attributed mainly to the aggressive approach by Pantel Technologies, which earlier used to be exclusively packaged with BSNL mobile services. The vendor has now broadened focus to target both the Government and Retail sectors. Further, on account of the festive season in India, a number of vendors pre-stocked shipments for sale during the month of October. Players that saw a good growth in this quarter versus the previous quarter were Pantel Technology, Samsung, Micromax, Datawind, iBall and Lenovo.
Commenting on the performance of the India Tablet PC market, Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst CMR Telecoms Practice said, “We have been of the firm view that Tablets need an enterprise-government segment orientation. This is what players like Pantel have been able to roll out successfully. With the volumes growth in sales of consumer Tablet PCs being ‘tepid’ at best and private enterprises not very bullish on deploying mobility solutions via the Tablet route, bulk procurements by the public sector have helped the category to re-surface.”
“However, as government purchases primarily go by cost per unit as the key decision-making criterion, we expect low-priced brands like Pantel, Datawind and others to have an edge vis-a-vis the likes of Micromax, Samsung and Xiaomi. For the latter category of vendors to see substantial growth in their shipments, Tablets have to offer a compelling value proposition to both consumers and enterprises,,” Faisal added.
Adding on to the findings for 3Q CY 2015, Tanvi Sharma, Analyst for Tablet Devices at CMR said, “The most sought after specifications of Tablets remained broadly the same in the current quarter, and we did not observe any major shift in trending parameters. However, it is worth noting that in the sub-Rs. 10,000 segment, the Rs.5,000-10,000 price bracket recorded significant growth. This is a healthy indication that while the consumer is looking out for low priced devices, she is also willing to pay a premium for quality. This trend has helped to push the device cost above Rs. 5,000 since sub-Rs. 5,000 devices had quality issues and consumers were not too happy with the performance.”
“We expect 2016, to see some major shifts in the trending specifications as Tablet PCs follow the Smartphone trend of improved specifications over a period of time. Tablets have perhaps reached a stage where a positive ‘correction’ such as this is only waiting to happen,” Tanvi concluded.
Notes for Editors
- This release is based on the CyberMedia Research (CMR) India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review published at the conclusion of every calendar quarter.
- 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’ is sometimes replaced or used interchangeably with “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. CyberMedia Research 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 (if any). These are, therefore, not part of the CyberMedia Research numbers reported here.
