Samsung disputes IDC, says leads India tablet space with over 40% share in Q4

NEW DELHI: Samsung India Tuesday said that it had volume market share of 40.6% for tablets in India for the fourth quarter, as per market research firm Gfk’s findings, disputing IDC's data released a day before which showed that home-bred company iBall had surpassed the South Korean major to become the market leader in the segment.

“Our syndicated research shows that our volume market share in the fourth quarter is more than the combined market share of the next four brands. The volume share of Samsung tablets for the year was nearly five times more than the next player, while the value share was three times bigger,” Asim Warsi, vice president, marketing- mobile business at Samsung India, said in a statement.

Samsung said that its value market share was 49% in the tablets category during the October-December.

“It is quite obvious that Samsung continues to be the clear leader in the tablets market in India. We are the number one choice of the Indian consumers,” Warsi said.

For 2014, Samsung India achieved volume market share of 42.9% and value market share of 51.2% in the tablets category. The GfK data is based on actual retail sales in 50,000-plus population cities, compared with IDC which tracks shipment data.

According to IDC’s fourth quarter report, Samsung slipped to the second spot, with 12.9% of the market share as against a 17.9% share in fourth quarter of 2013. The firm said that local tablet vendors are posing stiff competition to Samsung at retail counters, adding that iBall has more than tripled its share in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 15.6%, up from a 4.5% share in the same quarter last year.