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To take advantage of the upcoming festive fervor in the country and rising interest the latest formfactor of computing—tablets—several multinational brands such as Lenovo, Acer and HP are taking a plunge into the “affordable” sub Rs.20,000 category.
The Indian tablet market has been dominated by Chinese or local players with companies such as Apple and Samsung operating in a niche segment at present. According to experts, almost 70% of the tablets sold in the country are below the $200 price range, a factoid that may have caught the attention of these electronic giants, which have been only operating at the high-end of the market so far.
The festive season that starts from October is considered to be the strongest period for electronic sales in the country. The Indian tablet market stood at 2.6 million units last year – almost one-fourth of the overall PC market in the country – and is expected to increase to 6 million units this year. However, these estimates by market research and consultancy firm IDC India also include around 2.5 million units from the expected Uttar Pradesh state government tablet deal.
Minus the UP deal, the tablet run rate remains to be 1 million units a quarter, said Manasi Yadav, senior market analyst with IDC India. “If there are more product launches especially from branded international players we could see bigger volumes as most tablets selling in India are in the range of Rs.20,000-10,000 right now.”
Consider this: Lenovo plans to have a range of six tablets by December priced between Rs.9,000 -26,000. Four of them will be Rs.20,000. “We have launched one tablet at Rs.9,000 about a month ago and have also rolled out two other tablets in the Rs.15,000-17,000 range very recently,” Shailendra Katyal, Lenovo India’s director for consumer business said adding that affordable tablets are also being looked at as gifting options now.
While Acer India intends to launch a 3G-based tablet for the “mid segment” before Diwali, HP India is readying a range of tablets across segments with a sub Rs.20,000 Android-based tablet expected by end of the year. S. Rajendran, chief marketing officer of Acer India said that as this category is slated for growth, the buyer is becoming more “rationale and mature” and is not just looking at the price point after bad experiences with sub-standard product came to light. These companies refused to share more specifics to maintain competitive advantage over their rivals.
Yadav added that sales of Google Nexus in the country has seen a surge as it was priced in the affordable (Rs.13,000-16,000) range and also comes from a trusted brand. “So, if big players are launching products which are priced decently, consumers will move to better tablets.”
The slew of launches is expected to further increase competition in the market for small, unbranded players who entered India only recently and are already suffering from the impact of a depreciating rupee. Unlike big brands, these companies don't have deep pockets to insulate from the higher cost neither do they have the marketing muscle or the service network.
A deep depreciation in the rupee this year has been one of the reasons why there have been so few launches of these so called local brands against almost 50-70 product launches last year, said Gautam Advani, global head of mobility at HCL Infosystems Ltd. HCL retails tablets and phablets in the Rs 6,000-15,000 range already and has an edge over unbranded players due to its deep service and distributor network in the country.
