Indian tablet market saw a sluggish growth in Q1, 2016 with mere 1.3% growth, according to a latest report from IDC. A total of 0.86 million units were shipped this quarter.
IDC cited declining consumer interest in the slate tablet form factor and rapid growth of large screen smartphones (phablets) as a reason for the tablet market to slow down. Detachables traction continued in Q1 2016 with triple digit year-over-year growth, although it was on low base as uptake in this form factor began mainly from Q2 2016.
Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India,
Windows based detachables continue to account over 70 percent share, however Apple’s recent foray into this segment has garnered them to clock decent numbers given the premium price of their products. Although, continued long-term success may prove challenging as it plays in higher entry price point and iOS is yet to prove its enterprise-readiness unlike Microsoft.
Micromax continued to lead detachables category accounting for more than one-third of total shipments in Q1 2016. Datawind grabbed top spot with a market share of 27.6% while shipment grew at a healthy 33.5 percent over previous quarter. Vendor’s shipments doubled year-on-year. Samsung came in its 2 with vendor share of 15.2% in Q1 2016. Shipments dipped marginally by 3.7 percent over previous quarter but grew 5.1 percent over Q1 2015. Lenovo, Micromax and iBall were third, fourth and fifth with 13.6%, 11.3% and 8.7% respectively.
Tablet market in CY 2016 is expected to be stagnant in India but is likely to witness changing trends like healthy growth in commercial segment, migration to higher screen slate tablets and increase in adoption of 4G based tablets.
Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India said,
Detachables are expected to ramp upswiftly with majority traction coming from affordable windows based devices. Also, with Apple launching iPad pro 9.7, iOS is likely to gain share in detachables category this year.