Lenovo Leads, While Apple Gains In India Tablet Market In Q1 2021: CMR

Birender Singh

Birender Singh

New Delhi/Gurugram, 7 June 2021: The COVID-19 pandemic predictably dented the tablet market in India in Q1 2021 marking a 34% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline, initially the stocks were unavailable soon after festive season and later the worsening pandemic hampered the market prospects, as per the latest CMR’s Tablet PC Market Report Review for Q1 CY2021.  

According to Menka Kumari, Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, “The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the tablet market in India. Apple made significant gains on the back of its enduring aspirational appeal amongst consumers. Acer resurged in tablet market in the education sector. Despite the gloomy market conditions, Lenovo continued to impress with its winning streak, accounting to successful M series.”

Shipments of Tablets with 8 inches display constituted 22% of the overall shipments in the India market. On the other hand, Tablets with 10-inch and above displays contributed to 67% of the shipments.

Vendor Highlights

Lenovo continued to hold the first place and to grow in the region, mainly driven by opportunities in the government, education and healthcare sector. Lenovo commenced tablet manufacturing in Tirupati.

Apple replaced Samsung at the second position for Q1 2021 with 29% market share. Despite the volatile market dynamics, Apple has seen strong growth in tablet market. In Q1 2021, Apple iPad 8 garnered 17% market share, while Apple iPad Air 2020 has a 9% market share. Apple iPad had a tremendous shipment, growing by 144% YoY in Q1 2021.

Samsung slipped down to third place in the market leaderboard with 20% market share. Samsung has not launched any new tablets in Q1 2021.  Going forward, Samsung could potentially regain market share on the back of new value offerings in the tablet segment.

When it comes to chipsets,

Future Outlook

“As a consequence of the second COVID wave, the learning-from-home and work-from-home trend continues to gain traction and acquire some permanence. As such, CMR anticipates a modest growth in Tablet shipments of around 5-8% in Q2 2021, ” added Menka.

Notes for Editors

  1. This release is based on the CyberMedia Research (CMR) India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review published at the conclusion of every calendar quarter.
  2. The figures captured are of both enterprise and consumer shipments.

3. 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).