As smartphones get bigger & better, tablets lose consumer adoption
Sindhu.Hariharan@timesgroup.com
22.11.2019
With all-pervasive smartphones and their growing screen sizes, the tablet device -a middle device for many households- appears to be losing sheen among consumers.
The overall India tablet market is managing to hold strong in recent years, but growth in shipments is being driven commercial/enterprise segment and not consumers, any more.
Five years ago, nearly 70% of all shipments were from the consumer category and rest enterprise. Today, it is the opposite.
Even as tablets may be gradually disappearing from households, the government’s Digital India campaign, education technology, hospitality, and travel & tourism have emerged as sectors with high demand for the devices.
Prabhu Ram, Head- Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), Cyber Media Research (CMR), notes that with the evolution of smartphones into new form factors and taller, foldable smartphones now commercially available, the future of tablet market is at a cossroads.
As per CMR’s analysis, the tablet market in India posted recovery in the July-September quarter on the back of festive season shipments recording a 7.8% growth YoY, after three consecutive quarters of decline at the rate of 5.2%, 11.1%, and 10.5% in June 2019, March 2019 and December 2018 quarters respectively. Lenovo led the market, followed by Samsung and Apple.
“The tablet market has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past four to five years. From 70-75% of individual consumers earlier, now 60-65% of users is commercial,” Rahul Agarwal, managing director and CEO of Lenovo India, said.
Consumers are saying we anyways have a phone and a laptop, why do we need an inbetween device, he adds.
Lenovo holds almost half of the market with roughly 49% share in September quarter, Agarwal notes, quoting analyst firm IDC. “We are focused on commercial segment, where our market share is almost 65%,” he said.
As smartphones get bigger, users have also demanded innovation in screen sizes from tablet makers. While seven and eight-inch tablet screens used to dominate the market a few years ago, the 10-inch tablets have become bestsellers today.
“Today, smartphone screens are in the range of 6-inch, which gives users scope to use them for tasks like reading and entertainment, which they were doing on tablets earlier. The middle device today doesn’t make sense for a consumer,” Jaipal Singh, Associate Research Manager, IDC India, said.
Samsung recently launched its Galaxy Tab 6 with advanced display technologies and ‘first-ever’ on-screen fingerprint scanner on a tablet. Galaxy Tab S6 also lets users operate their appliances through voice commands with Bixby integration.
INVOGUE
Sindhu.Hariharan@timesgroup.com
22.11.2019
With all-pervasive smartphones and their growing screen sizes, the tablet device -a middle device for many households- appears to be losing sheen among consumers.
The overall India tablet market is managing to hold strong in recent years, but growth in shipments is being driven commercial/enterprise segment and not consumers, any more.
Five years ago, nearly 70% of all shipments were from the consumer category and rest enterprise. Today, it is the opposite.
Even as tablets may be gradually disappearing from households, the government’s Digital India campaign, education technology, hospitality, and travel & tourism have emerged as sectors with high demand for the devices.
Prabhu Ram, Head- Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), Cyber Media Research (CMR), notes that with the evolution of smartphones into new form factors and taller, foldable smartphones now commercially available, the future of tablet market is at a cossroads.
As per CMR’s analysis, the tablet market in India posted recovery in the July-September quarter on the back of festive season shipments recording a 7.8% growth YoY, after three consecutive quarters of decline at the rate of 5.2%, 11.1%, and 10.5% in June 2019, March 2019 and December 2018 quarters respectively. Lenovo led the market, followed by Samsung and Apple.
“The tablet market has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past four to five years. From 70-75% of individual consumers earlier, now 60-65% of users is commercial,” Rahul Agarwal, managing director and CEO of Lenovo India, said.
Consumers are saying we anyways have a phone and a laptop, why do we need an inbetween device, he adds.
Lenovo holds almost half of the market with roughly 49% share in September quarter, Agarwal notes, quoting analyst firm IDC. “We are focused on commercial segment, where our market share is almost 65%,” he said.
As smartphones get bigger, users have also demanded innovation in screen sizes from tablet makers. While seven and eight-inch tablet screens used to dominate the market a few years ago, the 10-inch tablets have become bestsellers today.
“Today, smartphone screens are in the range of 6-inch, which gives users scope to use them for tasks like reading and entertainment, which they were doing on tablets earlier. The middle device today doesn’t make sense for a consumer,” Jaipal Singh, Associate Research Manager, IDC India, said.
Samsung recently launched its Galaxy Tab 6 with advanced display technologies and ‘first-ever’ on-screen fingerprint scanner on a tablet. Galaxy Tab S6 also lets users operate their appliances through voice commands with Bixby integration.
INVOGUE
No comments:
Post a Comment