iBall on top as Indian tablet market grows 22% in second quarter of 2015

NEW DELHI: Post a sluggish first quarter, tablet shipment in India grew 22 per cent to touch 1.04 million units in the April-June 2015 quarter, research firm IDC today said.

However, owing to a sharp spike in sales in April-June, the third quarter is likely to have lesser shipment intake, it said.

"This (growth) was mainly due to BIS certification deadline on power adapters, which was earlier slated to be May but then moved to a later period," IDC said in a statement.

Hence, a few vendors pushed high volumes of their existing non-BIS compliant inventory into the channel during early months of the second quarter of 2015, it added.

On a yearly basis, IDC expects 2015 to post a higher single-digit growth over 2014 as the commercial segment drives growth, especially through government and education projects.

Consumer market outlook appears to be stagnant, IDC said.

iBall was the market leader with 14.9 per cent share, followed by Samsung (13.8 per cent), Datawind (13.5 per cent), Micromax (12 per cent) and Xiaomi (9.5 per cent).

IDC further said demand in the commercial space continues to rise. The segment saw a 12.4 per cent shipment growth in the reported quarter over January-March 2015 even as volumes doubled against the same period a year ago.

"However, for the tablet market to grow, consumer demand is vital, which is losing sheen as tablet as a category is suffering to justify its existence between larger smartphones and notebook PCs," IDC India Senior Market Analyst Karthik J said.

Almost three-fourths of tablets sold in India are connected tablets (2G/3G/4G-enabled) and 54 per cent are 3G enabled owing to limited Wi-Fi hotspots in the country.

"With 4G network now being available nationwide through Airtel and more operators to join the league soon, it presents a positive picture for next-generation 4G-connected tablets in India," IDC India Research Manager Kiran Kumar said.