Indian Tablet Market Shipments Decline 28 Percent, Says IDC

The tablet shipments in the consumer segment declined 28 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period last year, resulting in a sharp 18.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) drop in total tablet shipments in India, a report said on Wednesday.

According to market research firm International Data Corporation's (IDC) "Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker" report, 701,000 tablets were shipped in India in the first quarter of 2017 - a marginal drop of 2.2 percent from 716,000 units in the previous quarter.

"Owing to the growing digital proliferation across industries, commercial segment especially large enterprise, government and education sectors are expected to increase their demand for tablets. This will drive vendors to focus more aggressively in gaining market share in the commercial market to sustain the India tablet market," said Celso Gomes, Associate Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India.

Samsung leads the tablet market with 21.3 percent share. Samsung shipments increased four percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) primarily due to healthy growth in commercial shipments.

Samsung's Galaxy J Max continues to be the top selling model for the company driven primarily by consumer segment, followed by Galaxy Tab A.

Datawind secured the second position with 20.7 percent market share. Lenovo stood third with 20 percent market share as shipments remained stable over previous quarter, the findings showed.

iBall maintained its fourth place with 4.7 percent QoQ in the first quarter of 2017. Apple maintained its fifth-place position despite shipments declining by 38.2 percent compared to previous quarter.

iPad Air 2 remained the top selling model for Apple constituting more than half of its total shipments. Limited shipments of iPad mini, which accounted for over one-third of total shipments last quarter, would result in shrinking of iOS market in India, the report added.