Datawind grabs top spot in up and down Indian tablet market

[Jeff Causey]

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IDC has released new data on the tablet market in India for 2015, revealing bargain focused manufacturer Datawind managed to slide into the top spot during the fourth quarter with a 20.7% share of the market. Datawind managed to almost double their shipments year over year for the fourth quarter by focusing on the sub $100 segment. According to IDC, “cost benefits through local manufacturing, free internet bundled tablets, higher online presence in Q4 2015 were few key factors which worked in favour of the vendor.”

While Datawind saw positive results, other large players in the market like Samsung, Micromax, and iBall all saw fourth quarter shipments dip compared to the previous two quarters. As it stands now, Samsung is in second place with 15.8% of the market, though they do control the premium end of the market. Following Samsung is Micromax with 15.5% and Lenovo with 13.8%. That is the highest share yet for Lenovo which saw growth over the previous quarter. Analysts also see that as a good sign for Lenovo which is the only PC vendor at the top of the rankings and is a testament to the company’s efforts to diversify their product lines.

Although shipments in India were up 8.2% for 2015, a nice rebound over a down year in 2014, the fourth quarter saw the market drop out with a decline of 18.7% compared to the third quarter. The market was also down 10.1% compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

Looking ahead, analysts will be watching 2016 to see if Samsung is impacted by the entry of the Apple iPad Pro and Microsoft Surface Pro in the premium market segment. During 2015 Windows based tablet shipments tripled, a trend Microsoft hopes will continue in 2016.

Overall, analysts expect the tablet market in India to only experience marginal growth. One area that may see better results will be in the commercial segment.

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source: Economic Times


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