Samsung leads the tablet market: IDC

According to market research firm International Data Corporation's (IDC) "Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker" report, Samsung leads the tablet market with 21.3 percent market share. Samsung shipments increased 4.0 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in CY Q1 2017, primarily due to healthy growth in commercial shipments.

It says that Samsung's Galaxy J Max continues to be the top-selling model for the company driven primarily by consumer segment, followed by Galaxy Tab A.

Meanwhile,701,000 tablets were shipped in India in the first quarter of 2017 - a marginal drop of 2.2 percent from 716,000 units in the previous quarter.

"Owing to the growing digital proliferation across industries, commercial segment especially large enterprise, government and education sectors are expected to increase their demand for tablets. This will drive vendors to focus more aggressively in gaining market share in the commercial market on sustaining the India tablet market," said Celso Gomes, Associate Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India.

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It says that tablets with 4G based connectivity accounted for around 39.2 percent in Q1 2017, up from 15.3 percent from Q1 2016 and tablets sold through online channels accounted for 35 percent of the total tablet shipments in Q1 2017.

However Detachable tablets still account for a nominal share of the total tablet market, driven primarily by the consumer segment. Acer continued to dominate this product category, followed by Apple's iPad Pro.

The firm also mentioned that Datawind secured the second position with 20.7 percent market share, Lenovo stood third with 20 percent market share as shipments remained stable over the previous quarter,iBall maintained its fourth place with 4.7 percent QoQ in the first quarter of 2017.

Apple maintained its fifth-place position despite shipments declining by 38.2 percent compared to previous quarter and iPad Air 2 remained the top-selling model for Apple constituting more than half of its total shipments. Limited shipments of iPad mini, which accounted for over one-third of total shipments last quarter, would result in shrinking of an iOS market in India.

While giving the forecast the research firm pointed out that, tablets shipments in India in CY Q2 2017 are likely to be negatively impacted by the GST implementation which is expected to begin from 1st July 2017. The distribution channels for tablets will be cautious on procuring new inventory especially in the month of June.

"Apprehensions on lower tax credit and lack of complete clarity regarding the processes are the major concerns of retailers and city/state level distributors, which may lead to a limited inventory stocking, especially in the June 2017," says Navkendar Singh, Sr. Research Manager, IDC India. "But the impact is expected to be short spanned as the channel would prepare themselves for the festive season in second half of Q3 2017."