Samsung expects 4G roll out to aid tablet market growth in India

As 4G seeing a pan-India roll out soon, a range of mobile devices supporting 4G LTE already hitting Indian market every other day

Korean smartphone and electronics maker Samsung expects tablet market in India to grow, thanks to the 4G roll out gaining momentum in the country.

"4G connectivity has a critical role to play in tablet adoption in India and the speed aspect is going to be a key driver," said Manu Sharma, Director, Mobile Business, Samsung Electronics.

With 4G seeing a pan-India roll out soon and a range of mobile devices that support 4G LTE already hitting Indian market every other day, there will be a lot of innovations around the whole ecosystem of services such as education, finance, e-governance, etc in terms of multimedia aspects.

 

During the January-March quarter of 2015, the number of 4G devices sold in India had more than doubled. According to Cyber Media Research, more than 2.2 million LTE devices were shipped during the quarter. While Airtel has launched its 4G services pan India and Vodafone and new entrant Relaince Jio ready to hit the market by year-end, the competition is set to get more aggressive in India.

He added that smartphone segment has seen about 20 per cent adoption rate in India towards 4G while it is lesser for tablets. Sharma was speaking during the launch of Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 in Bengaluru on Wednesday. It has also partnered with Airtel to offer its users 2GB of 4G data per month free, for two months on Airtel's network.

Claimed to be the world's slimmest tablet, the new entrant to the Samsung tablet space is only 5.6 mm thick and has a metal frame. The 392g heavy tablet available in gold, black and white colours, is priced at Rs 39,400.

This is Samsung's 17th device in the 4G space and third tablet to be launched this year, excluding the launch of refreshed Tab 3V. "Galaxy Tab S2 is a completely Made in India product," Sharma said. Samsung has two manufacturing centres in India, one each in Noida and Chennai.

According to a recent International Data Corporation's (IDC) report, tablet market growth is reviving in India and is witnessing a positive growth at 23 per cent in the second quarter of 2015, recovering from a slow start in the first quarter. Quoting GfK, a German market research firm, Samsung said it has a value market share of 42 per cent for tablets in India as of July and is the largest player. There are about 175,000 units of tablets sold in India every month.

However, according to the IDC report, iBall occupies the top spot for tablet sales in India for the second quarter, followed by Samsung and Datawind.