'Indian tablet PC market revenues to cross $2 bn in 2013'

Buoyed by growing preference for tablets in education and enterprise sectors, the Indian tablet PC market is expected to cross USD 2 billion in revenues this year, global research firm TechSci Research said.

"The acceptance and usage of tablet PCs in various sectors will contribute to the market growth and it is expected that India Tablet PC market will cross USD 2 billion revenues by the end of 2013," the firm said in a report.

Increasing usage and preference for tablets in the education sector, private enterprises and growing demand from the smartphone and laptop users would drive the market for tablet PC over the coming years, it added.

India is one of the fastest growing economies, it said, adding that as a result of rapidly improving technology, booming service industry and the need for easy and fast networking, the demand for lightweight computing devices is increasing.

According to MAIT, the apex body representing India's IT hardware industry, training and R&D services sectors, tablet sales in 2012-13 stood at 1.9 million units as against 0.36 million units in 2011-12 witnessing a growth of 427%.

CyberMedia Research (CMR) said Indian tablet market size rose 107.4% year-on-year to over 1,150,000 tablets in the second quarter this year.

Global research firm IDC said the overall tablet market in India reached about 2.66 million units last year and is expected to reach a around 6 million units in 2013, driven by low cost tablet space and a slew of public sector projects.