Micromax tops tablet market in India, Research

Sales of tablets in the country crossed half a million units in the second quarter ended June this year, led by Micromax, and followed by Samsung and Apple. This represented an increase of 59% quarter-on-quarter, and a year-on-year jump of 673%. 

Increase in shipments is mainly due to entry of new tablet vendors, and introduction of offerings from existing vendors at low- to-medium price points. 

According to CyberMedia Research, in the overall tablets market, Micromax led with 18.4% share, followed by Samsung at second position with 13.3%, and Apple at the third slot with 12.3%, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during the 2Q 2012. Though the tablets market here is still at a nascent stage but at the same time has become competitive due to entry of new vendors with entry level offerings. Close to 90 vendors launched their tablets till 2Q 2012. 

The ASV (average sales value) of the tablets in 2Q 2012 has dropped to little above Rs 13,000 from Rs 26,000 in the first quarter, as a majority of vendors launched their products in the Rs 5,000-10,000 price range. 

According to Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst, CMR telecoms practice , "During 2Q 2012, 47.4% of tablet sales were from new entrants in the market with a strong focus on addressing application areas in the education and entertainment segments. This trend demonstrates clearly that vendors are positioning their devices at India's youth." 

"Going forward we see vendors launching segment-specific tablets such as on healthcare, retail and e-governance. In terms of tablet use cases, the popular categories are internet browsing, email, entertainment, gaming, social networking, information (cricket, flights etc). Clearly, the Indian user is also taking to the tablet as a content consumption device," added Tarun Pathak, analyst, CMR telecoms practice.