Samsung Still Leads Indian Tablet Market, but Is Losing Its Grip: CMR

Samsung is still the leader in Indian tablet market with 19.2 percent share in 2014, but the Korean electronics giant's grip on the segment is slipping, CyberMedia Research (CMR) said on Wednesday.

Overall, the tablet market in India fell by 9.2 percent to 3.89 million units shipped in 2014 as compared to 2013, it said in a statement.

Of this, 1.93 million were 3G tablets, representing 49.7 percent of the total shipments and the segment grew at 43.5 percent as compared to 2013, it added.

"Samsung maintains lead with 19.2 percent of the total shipments, but shows a decline in market share. Datawind and Micromax emerge at second and third spots, respectively," CMR said.

Besides, mainstream IT vendors like Lenovo, HP and Dell made significant inroads, it added.

"So, while 2015 is a challenging year for players like Samsung, Datawind and Micromax, it is equally going to throw up a challenge to Google to maintain its dominance through Android OS and not lose out to Microsoft Windows, as the enterprise adoption of tablets picks up," CMR Telecom Practice Lead Analyst Faisal Kawoosa said.

The incumbent early mover brands managed to maintain their leadership positions during the year but market seemed to signal movement along a different trajectory, he added.

"Enterprises contributed about 21 percent of the total tablet PC shipments in India during 2014. This, coupled with availability of Windows-based solutions, helped mainstream players like Lenovo, HP and Dell make strong inroads into this device category," Kawoosa said.

Expressing concern over the declining trends in tablet PC shipments in the consumer segment, CMR Analyst (Tablet PCs) Sachin Mehta said, "The pace and momentum of tablet PC adoption had moved at a fast pace in India and continued for a few years. Industry players expect this trend to continue unabated, but are unprepared by the success of phablets, that basically cannibalised tablet sales in 2014."

Earlier this week, research firm IDC had said that Samsung has been dethroned as top tablet vendor in the Indian market by domestic firm iBall.

Mumbai-based iBall as per IDC figures overtook Samsung in the Indian tablet market with 15.6 percent share in October-December quarter, which saw total shipments of 0.96 million units.