- The Indian tablet market is on a revival path after declining for four years.
Samsung was the biggest gainer in 2020, while market leader Lenovo registered a decline.- Industry leaders and probable new entrants alike are gung-ho about the prospects of the Indian tablet market.
The need to buy a device to go online is not limited to just students. Be it professionals working from home, or the boom in usage of OTT (over-the-top) services like Netflix, Hotstar, among others, the Indian tablet market has shot back to life after a lull.
According to a Counterpoint Research report, the global tablet market saw shipments jump by 53% in the June quarter.
As far as India is concerned, an IDC report reveals the tablet market grew 14.7% through 2020, led by the consumer segment, which witnessed a surge of 60%.
Lenovo continues to lead the market with a share of 39%, but year-on-year, it registered a decline. Samsung gained the most, taking its share from 19% in 2019 to 32% in 2020.
Industry leaders believe the shift to digital learning and work from home is not temporary.
“The shift towards digital for learning and entertainment is not temporary. This trend is expected to continue and the demand for tablets will continue to be strong,” Pankaj Harjai, director of tablets and smart devices at Lenovo India, told Business Insider.
“This trend is going to continue. In fact, the adoption will increase in both commercial and consumer sectors, as more and more applications are being developed with tablets as the digital device,” Harjai added.
It’s not just the current market leaders that think this way.
Realme, known for its smartphones, is also rumoured to dip its toes in the tablet space. But before it does, it’s worth looking at what Realme India’s chief executive officer thinks about the tablet industry.
“E-learning has been a major factor that has been increasing the utility of tablets. Tablets are also becoming a very convenient product to operate and use in ‘work from home scenarios,” Madhav Sheth, vice president, Realme, and chief executive officer, Realme India and Europe, told Business Insider in an interview.
Joining Realme in the list of companies rumoured to launch their first tablet is another BBK group company, OnePlus. However, the tablet is likely under early stages of development, so the launch could still be a few months away.
“Tablet penetration in India is still quite low, so there is plenty of space for growth. We want to disrupt the market and provide the best to our customers by including all those features that no other brand has previously offered on the market in the tablet segment,” Sheth added, shedding light on Realme’s approach to tablets.
The iPad Pro launched this year with the
The M1 iPad Pro might still be a ways away from replacing a laptop, but it is powerful enough to make it a great fit thanks to the Magic Pencil stylus and the keyboard accessories. While these accessories have been around for a while, the M1 chipset’s performance boost allows you to extract more from the iPad than ever before.
Foldable phones are slowly but steadily gaining prominence, thanks to companies like Samsung, Huawei, Motorola and Xiaomi launching products with bendable screens.
While these phones are still expensive, they are going mainstream slowly and could help usher in a lot more portable tablets than what we have in the markets right now.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the latest foldable smartphone that is closing in on the tablet category, but imagine a scenario where you could get a full-fledged tablet with a 10-inch display that can be folded in half? That would make tablets immediately attractive for a much larger audience.
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