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The overall India Tablet shipments for CY 2013 stood at 4.14 million units representing a year-on-year growth of 56.4% over CY 2012.
According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker data for CY 2013, while the first half of 2013 witnessed substantial growth in Tablet volumes driven largely by low-end devices, the market observed contraction in the second half of 2013.
Despite a strong festive season demand, spending on tablets slowed down in 2H 2013 as the consumer adoption approached early stages of maturity on this category of devices.
A deep dive into the screen size trends highlights that there has been a growing acceptance for "phablets", tablets with screen size of 8 < 9 inch. "The popularity of phablets has in fact crossed over the demand for 7 inch tablets. For a price conscious market like India, it is about owning a combination device, meeting the needs with one device instead of two. Also, the return rates on low cost 7 inch tablets have been unexplainably large. First time users latching onto such devices are now looking to move to products that offer better experience in terms of life span and quality" said, Karan Thakkar, Senior Market Analyst with IDC.
In terms of vendor market share Samsung with 18.7% market share, outperformed its competitors with a strong presence in 7 < 8 inch screen size. Despite a dominating presence, the vendor has scaled down its volumes owing to changing market dynamics, said the report.
Micromax with 8.9% retained its rank, primarily due to their value for money proposition and concerted marketing efforts. Apple was third with 7.5% market share, Apple has shown significant growth in 7 < 8 inch screen size despite its niche positioning. iPad Mini was noted to be well accepted by the market, supported by installment payments for consumers.
