India Tablet Market sees strong growth in Q4 2014

The year ended on a positive note for the tablet market by having posted a strong growth in Q4 2014. The market has also witnessed a steady growth during the festive third quarter. According to IDC, India tablet market reported shipments of 0.96 million units in Q4, a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.6%. Strong performance of local players as well as increasing interest of the PC OEMs in the tablets space contributed to the expansion of the market over Q3. The share of PC OEMs in the market has grown by more than double year-on-year.

“The market saw a correction post the introduction of BIS regulation in July 2013. Unbranded tablets were wiped off from the market, thereby contracting the bubble of growth witnessed in 1H 2013 and hence resulting in year-on-year decline in growth,” says Tanvi HYPERLINK "http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=PRF004408" Mann, Market Analyst, Client Devices IDC India.

7-inch tablets placed in less than $150 price band populate the market and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. While Android still has majority of the pie, we do see vendors exploring the 8”-9” windows form-factor.

Wi-Fi-enabled tablets have faced a steep decline over the quarters, losing out to connected tablets. The market is swiftly moving towards 3G connected tablets that posted a double-digit growth in Q4 and accounted for approximately 60% of the total shipments. Additionally, we expect 4G tablets to pick up as more service providers roll out their LTE spectrums by 2H 2015.