Tablet PC market in India at present is very small with
sales varying from around 1,00,000 to 2,50,000. However these numbers (sales of
tablet PC) are also not 100% correct . Last few months
there has been an upsurge in buying of tablets primarily because of blackberry reducing
its prices of its playbook model. The market share of playbook in Indian market
is 20%( Samsung galaxy being the market
leader with 55% share).
Apple I-pad
did not have a good start in India as its share in a low volume Indian market
is only 6%.Apple earlier neglected india and there little advertising in india is
also only on their i-phones and Macbooks. Apple CEO tim cook recently said that
they would love to have india as their one of the good markets but the distribution
structure in india is not very good for premium products.
Tablets
itself create confusion in the minds of consumer as people are not sure whether
tablets can replace their smartphones or laptops or both or neither of them. Reliance launched
an advt campaign recently (with ranvijay n anushka onboard) showing
multitasking benefits of a 3G tablet, showing smartphone as nothing but an instrument
to be used as a torch, urging Indian consumers to buy tablets instead of
smartphones. Micromax also launched a funbook tablet and funbook pro and the company
also claims that they have sold 1,30,000 tablets in last 4 months.
Tablets at present would appeal to only those
people who already have a laptop and smartphone both and want to try a new
product( mainly the high income group). They were also the earlier buyers of smartphones
when smartphones were launched in indian market in 2004-2005. Both micromax and reliance does not have the
brand equity to satisfy the needs of high income group.
Tablets also
suffer from the infrastructure problems in telecom industry in india as tablets
are a device which are to be used on the
move but high speed internet is not available in india. India ( unlike
developed countries) does not have wifi hotspots at public places nor india has
full fledged 3g network, so the purpose of buying tablets fails here. The sales
of tablets in india will be exciting to watch in next few years as many experts
claim that there sales will be close to a million in next few years, which
segment tablets will be sold highest will also be in question as Indian population
would be going for mid range tablets offered by Indian companies or high range
tablets offered by Samsung or apple( also including Microsoft surface tablet.)??