Shipments of tablets in India, inclusive of slate and detachable, stood at 0.98 million units in the second quarter of the calendar year 2016. This is a 14.4 per cent growth over the previous quarter, even though it dipped 5.6 per cent over the same period last year.

Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India: “Tablet market declined as consumer market receded by 12.5 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, while commercial segment continues to grow at a heathy rate indicating clear shift in the focus of the market.’’

Approximately three-fourth of tablets sold in India are below $150 and driven primarily by local vendors like Datawind, iBall and Micromax followed by Lenovo. Samsung dominate the mid-$150-350 segment, while the premium (priced over $300) segment continues to be dominated by Apple, driven primarily by its iPad Air 2.

Also, premium end of detachable segment spiked in Q2 2016 owing to healthy shipments from Apple’s newly launched iPad Pro 9.7.

After the steady ramp since Q1 last year, detachable shipments dipped sequentially for the first time but managed to post healthy double digit year-on-year growth.

“Detachables are seeing better uptake compared to convertibles owing to the reason that convertibles are relatively premium priced while detachables are able to effectively bridge the price and functionality gap between tablets and entry level notebooks. In addition to this, detachable offers the option of all three major operating system platforms to the users,” said Karthik J.

Datawind maintained its top position with 27.5 percentage share in Q2, with 14.1 per cent growth over previous quarter. Vendor makes inroads into detachable category with Android devices in sub-$150.

Datawind is likely to expand its channel and manufacturing capacity in response to sharp trajectory it has been seeing in the past year.

Samsung sustained the second position with a vendor share of 14.7 percentage during the quarter. Their shipments grew marginally over Q1 2015, while posting a healthy 11 per cent over previous quarter primarily driven by commercial segment.

iBall bounced back to take third place after successively declining since last two quarters. However, vendor shipments dip 9.4 per cent in Q2 over the same period last year. iBall begins local manufacturing of tablets towards the end of Q2 2016.

Lenovo slipped to fourth place with 11.2 percentage share in Q2 2016 as the shipments declined 6.2 per cent over previous quarter. Q2 shipments grew 60.8 per cent over the same period last year as vendor’s focus has shifted from consumer to commercial segment.

After declining for last two quarters, Micromax’s shipments recovered in Q2 driven primarily by uptake in commercial segment. Micromax slipped to fifth position in Q2 2016 with vendor share for 10.9 per cent.

Vendor, who is the key player in detachable segment, had no contribution to the category in Q2 2016 as the channel was diluting existing inventory.

Forecast

Tablet shipments are expected to grow sequentially in Q2 2016 to prepare the channel with enough inventory for soon approaching festive season.

“However, overall 2016 tablet shipments are expected to decline marginally this year as ramp of commercial segment isn’t enough to offset the consumer segment decline. Detachables are expected to clock healthy double digit annual growth in 2016 driven primarily by entry level windows devices and iPad pro,” Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, Mobile Devices Research, IDC India and South Asia, said.

rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in

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