India’s tablet market to surpass 7 million units by 2015-16: MAIT

By Kul Bhushan | Updated on 23-Oct-2012

23-Oct-2012

According to a new report from Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the tablet PC market in India is expected to grow at 40 percent to 7.3 million units in 2015-16, up from 0.95 millon units in 2011-12. Moreover, demand for tablet PCs is likely to see same massive growth in the next five years, driven by the entry-level budget and mid-range tablets.

“The tablet market is the new blue-eyed growth opportunity in India. It is fast becoming one of the drivers of rapid growth in the IT content consumption and hardware sector in India. With the introduction of several national and international brands of tablet in India, the market is witnessing a revolution of sorts with these devices changing the way services are delivered in various other sectors such as education, healthcare and governance. Tablets will soon enable and empower even our rural areas with services bridging the last mile connectivity gap through these devices,” reports quote MAIT President Alok Bhardwaj as saying.

The report attributes government purchases and rise in demands for the tablet PCs among the youth for the projected growth. According to the reports, low-cost tablets have helped people accessing education and healthcare services. “Tablets being one of the cheapest devices available in the Indian market, it is a potential device that can transform the entire country, as any content in any language can effectively work on this device,” added Alok Bhardwaj.

MAIT Vice President, V Ramamurthy said, “It is an evolving market and we expect to see the emergence of value based tablet devices as an important segment. Also the developing ecosystem for this device will ensure that tablets as a computing device will become an integral part of human lives. Apart from being a consumer lifestyle product I see a huge uptake of the tablet in the education segment and it is a device which has all the potential to revolutionize the education system.”

The MAIT report on India’s tablet PC comes close on the heels of CyberMedia Research (CMR) report that said that low-cost tablet PC maker Micromax had emerged as the top brand in the Indian tablet market, and ranks ahead of the international brands such as Apple and Samsung.

The CMR report also said that new entrants in the tablet market focussed on areas in education and entertainment segments that helped them grow their market share. The trend, according to the report, demonstrates that manufacturers/vendors are positioning their devices at youth of the country.

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