Tablets fly, 1.6 lakh units sold in Oct-Jun

Nearly 1,58,000 tablet computers were sold in the country in the nine months up to June 30, with Samsung leading the market followed by an unlikely BlackBerry pushing Apple to a not so enviable third spot, data local technology market researcher CyberMedia Research (CMR) said on Thursday.

Samsung commanded 46% of the market while BlackBerry and Apple cornered 21% and 18% share of the still nascent tablet market in India.

The data reveals an interesting consumer trend in a market that has the potential to be one of the largest media consumption devices market in Asia. It may be noted that in the recent months Apple has attempted and sometimes succeeded in blocking the sale of Samsung’s tablet computer in several countries in Europe and Australia, citing violation of intellectual property rights around technology used in the device.

While Indian firm Olive Telecommunications started the parade with its Olivepad launch in July 2010, Samsung followed up with its Samsung GalaxyTab in October the same year. Apple’s iPad arrived in January this year. Price ranged from Rs8,000 all the way up to Rs47,000.

“Currently, the Indian tablet market has many more models available with a range of features and at a variety of price points, compared to six months ago. However, for the Tablet to become a common man’s device, usage tariffs for high speed data services need to be brought down even further along with useful and relevant content for the Indian consumer”, stated Anirban Banerjee, associate vice -president at CMR.

“A more mature device ecosystem matures driven by better collaboration among device markers, content providers and telecom operators will further strengthen adoption of media tablets in India,” said Naveen Mishra, lead analyst at CMR.

“The launch of low cost tablets bundled with affordable data services on 3G and BWA networks can be expected to give a fillip to India Tablet shipments in 2012 and beyond.”

According to CMR analysts India should see shipments rise to 275,000 units  by the end of calendar year 2011, at which point of time there will be an estimated 35 vendors selling as many as 90
models.