India ships 3.89 million tablets, Samsung leads with 19.2% share in 2014: CMR

NEW DELHI: Korean tablet maker Samsung Electronics maintained its leadership position with 19.2 per cent market share in the 3.89 million tablet pie during 2014, followed by Datawind and Micromax, a release by CyberMedia Research said.

"Samsung maintains lead with 19.2 per cent of total shipments, but shows a decline in market share. Datawind and Micromax emerge at 2nd and 3rd spots, respectively," the statement said.

In its annual tablets market review, the research firm said that the overall tablet market saw a decline of 9.2 per cent in terms of shipments over 2013, with shipments touching 3.89 million units during the period.

With 1.93 million units, 3G tablets accounted 49.7 per cent of all the shipments, registering a 43.5 per cent growth over the previous year.

"The incumbent, early mover brands managed to maintain their leadership positions during the year, but the market seemed to signal movement along a different trajectory," Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said.

Enterprises contributed about 21 per cent of the total 3.89 million tablet PC shipments in India during CY 2014, the study said.

"2015 is going to be a challenging year for players like Samsung, Datawind and Micromax, it is equally throwing up a challenge to Google to maintain its dominance through Android OS and not lose out to Microsoft Windows, as the enterprise adoption of tablets picks up further," Faisal cautioned.

Sachin Mehta, analyst for tablet PCs at CMR, expressed concern over the declining trend in tablet PC shipments in the consumer segment and said that the space needs to be re-invented and designers should speed up innovation and stop offering just ‘a large screen size smartphone’.