Indians would end up buying five times as many media tablets this year as they did during the last, consultant and research firm Frost & Sullivan said.
According to the firm, which conducts regular market surveys on products, Indians bought around 60,000 tablets in 2010. This year, however, that figure is likely to grow to around 3,00,000 as the market has seen the introduction of a large number of new models.
The tablet market was virtually created by Apple, which still dominates the segment with its iPad. However, iPads are still considered a premium item due to their high price (around Rs 30,000).
“..entry of Indian players like Reliance Communications and Beetel has led to intense competition in the market. Today we have tablets priced from INR 4,500 to 46,900, excluding the INR 2999 Aakash Ubislate7.
“With increasing focus on the tablet PC market, many Indian and Chinese vendors like Micromax, G’Five, and Karbonn etc. are also likely to enter the fray,” the firm noted.
The number of tablets sold in India will roughly double every year, reaching 23.38 million (2.33 crore) by 2017. In comparison, experts estimate that Indians will buy around 10-15 million smartphones this year.
The increasing adoption of 3G services and the impending launch of 4G LTE services in India will positively affect data usage in the country. Ensuring the availability of seamless Internet connectivity at nominal prices will drive the tablet PC sales, it added.