Low-cost tablets are getting traction in the Indian market. According to CyberMedia Research, about 4.75 lakh units of tablets were sold in India last year.
Mr Naveen Mishra, Lead Telecoms Analyst, CyberMedia Research, said, “The Indian market has become very competitive in the five quarters since fourth quarter of 2010, when the first tablet model was introduced in the country by Samsung.”
“Going forward, with the launch of new, competitively priced models from vendors such as Intex and Micromax, CyberMedia Research expects bigger marketing spends to popularise the tablet form factor as well as signal brand strength by leading players,” he added.
Over the past few months, number of companies have launched low-cost tablets in the market. This includes the INTEX itab at Rs 11,900, Zync tablet at Rs 8,990 and Wishtel's tablet at Rs 4,000
According to CyberMedia Research, the competition is expected to intensify further with new vendors launching their products during 2012. “In a short span of time, the market has already seen ‘verticalised' product offerings and during 2012 this will become an even stronger trend. For now, education seems to be the vertical with highest priority of adoption and a large number of models are positioned at this segment,” Mr Mishra said.
However, he cautioned that the success in adoption of tablets will largely depend on product performance and availability of relevant content as well as affordable and widespread 3G services.