Tablet sales have gone down even further in India

Just at a time when Indians were seen moving around with a giant sized device and making phone calls, none knew the smartness would be out of fashion so soon. If a data by CMR’ s India Quarterly Tablets Market Review is to be believed, shipment of tablets in the first quarter of this financial year has suffered a double-digit decline of 13.9% q-o-q in terms. Earlier while tablets were setting records for shipment, this is the first time when a decline has been noticed.

“Since there isn’t much value addition coming in the shape of specific solutions to enhance device usability at the moment, Tablets are only becoming devices of convenience, essentially larger screen versions of smartphones. This has resulted in lower priority in the list of ‘must have’ devices for the average user. Tablets only make the ‘nice-to-have’ grade.

To prevent the Tablet form factor from dying out, vendors must position their offerings as a distinct category, rather than just an also ran device at the cusp of a Smartphone and a Laptop PC,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

However, BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) enabled Tablets posted 60% contribution in the total shipments for the period. Though negative vibes are prevailing in the market, Samsung maintains lead and improves on market share.