At a time when tablet sales are dipping in the country, Samsung India on Thursday launched a new series of tablet called Galaxy Tab 3. There are two versions of the Tab one with an 8-inch screen and the other with a 7-inch screen priced at Rs 25,725 and Rs 17,745, respectively.
It also launched a Wi-Fi only version for Rs 21,945. The tablets come with an introductory offer of 2GB/month data free for 2 months for Vodafone post-paid customers.
The 8-inch tablet (311) has 1.5 GHz dual core processor with a 1.5 GB RAM. It runs on the latest Android Jellybean 4.2 and comes with 16GB internal memory that can be expanded by up to 64GB with MicroSD card.
The 7-inch tablet (211), on the other hand, has 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 1GB RAM. It has 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded by up to 32 GB.
Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Samsung Mobile and Imaging Business, said, “Tab 2 has been our most successful tablet and helped gain market leadership. We have 62 per cent value share in the market and with Tab 3 we hope to take the leap even further. Our biggest task is to grow the market.”
Two segments
The company is betting big on two segments in the industry — education and enterprise. Taneja said, “We want to offer such content on our tablets to help us differentiate ourselves in the market. On the enterprise side, the tendency of enterprises is largely to customise their own solutions. Some enterprises are using tablets for people on the field or their sales force.”
A recent report by analyst firm Cyber Media Research has shown an 18 per cent dip of tablet shipments between October- December of 2012 and the first three months of 2013. Shipments came down from 10,97,902 pieces (in October-December) to 9,05,000 between January and March. But Taneja is bullish on the tablet market. “I don’t think tablet sales are decreasing. Last year, the market was around a million and a half, and we are expecting the market to double,” he said.