Global brands dominate

A reduced price helped BlackBerry PlayBook salesDespite many low-cost media tablet launches in the second half of 2011, Apple’s iPad maintained its premier position in the Indian market with 51 percent market share in 2011.

Samsung grew it’s handset popularity, with its Galaxy Tab enabling Samsung to occupy the second spot with 24 percent market share. Indian consumers also showed a strong penchant for RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook after prices were slashed significantly, giving it third position with a 10.4 percent market share.

“Although there is lot of buzz in the Indian market, media tablets are yet to demonstrate their value proposition to Indian consumers,” said ABI research analyst Aishwarya Singh. “While there are several media tablets being launched in the sub-$200 price range, simply lowering the average selling price of media tablets may not lead to the desired growth in the market.”

In India, total media tablet shipments in 2011 were estimated to be 0.39 million units, a very small fraction of the nearly 65 million shipped globally. However, the Indian media tablet market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 71 percent and shipments are expected to grow to 9.66 million units in 2017.