Samsung, Datawind, and Micromax Lead Indian Tablet Shipments in Q1: CMR

About 1.2 million units of tablets were shipped in the October-December quarter, 2014, according to CyberMedia Research's India Quarterly Tablets Market Review.

"We had cautioned the industry that unless they make substantial differentiation in the value proposition for potential customers, tablet shipments are not going to grow.

This is what the results now reinforce," CMR Lead Analyst Telecoms Practice Faisal Kawoosa said.

"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," he added.

Kawoosa said this has resulted in tablets ranking lower in the list of 'must have' devices for the average user and being 'nice-to-have'.

In the first quarter of 2015, Samsung led the segment with 19.7 percent share, followed by Datawind (12.7 percent) and Micromax (9 percent).

Broadband Wireless Access-enabled tablets accounted for 60 percent of the total shipments in the said quarter.

Last week, CMR published its Q1 2015 report on smartphone sales and shipments in India. It reported sales dipped 7 percent to 19.5 million units, impacted by change in duty structure and restricted supplies from China. The overall mobile handsets market in the country, including feature phones, declined 15 percent to 53 million units in the January-March period, compared to the previous three months.

Samsung increased its share in the smartphones segment to 27.9 percent in the first quarter of 2015, up from 23.7 percent in October-December 2014. Micromax, at second spot, registered a decline in market share in smartphone segment to 16.2 percent in the said period, from 17.8 percent in the previous quarter. Intex emerged third with a 9.2 percent market share.

Written with inputs from PTI