Indians continue to invest in high cost and branded tablet personal computers.
This is despite a series of low-cost tablet launches in the second half of 2011.
This investment trend was evident from the fact the top three players – Apple, Samsung and RIM – now enjoy nearly 85 per cent of the market share in tablet PCs.
Apple's iPad maintained its premier position in the Indian tablet personal computer market with a 51 per cent market share in 2011.
Samsung's achievement at extending its success in the handset segment to the tablet segment, with its Galaxy Tab, allowed the Korean major to occupy the second spot with a 24 per cent market share, says a report by the US-based ABI Research.
Tablet shipments
Indian consumers also showed a strong penchant for RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook after prices were slashed significantly, making it the third largest player with a 10.4 per cent market share. In India, total tablet shipments in 2011 are estimated to be 0.39 million units, which is a very small fraction of the nearly 65 million shipped globally. However, the Indian tablet market is estimated to annually grow at 71 per cent and shipments are expected to grow to 9.66 million units in 2017.
“An enhanced user experience, seamless connectivity options, and localised content will drive the media tablet market growth,” says Ms Aishwarya Singh, research analyst with ABI. The presence of ultra-low cost tablets with non-optimal specifications might ruin the user experience and, in turn, prove to be a dampener for tablet growth, she said.
Although there is lot of buzz in the Indian market, tablets are yet to demonstrate their value proposition to Indian consumers.
While there are several tablets being launched in the sub-$200 price range, simply lowering the average selling price of such tablets may not lead to the desired growth in the market. However, tablets from domestic handset makers, such as Micromax, may be the right products at the right price point for the mass market, she said in the report.