With the tablet PC sales in India zooming beyond expectation and almost 50 big or small players vying for a share in the pie, it’s time we get a quick recap of the blitzkrieg story as it stands now. Broadly speaking we can easily classify the tablet market into 3 categories: above Rs.25,000 , Rs.15,000 to Rs.25,000 and the sub-15,000.
Each category envisages the requirement of a particular market segment it eventually caters to. So, let’s see the top 3 players in each category.
Tablet Price in India: Above Rs.25,000
This segment caters specially to the group where quality and brand value come before the cost. No points for guessing the names of the top 3 here though.
- Apple iPad2 : Rs.41,900(32GB) / Rs.31,900(16GB)
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 : Rs. 32,900(16GB)
- Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi : Rs.31,200(16GB)
With Samsung notching up the highest sales figure percentage, a whooping 85%, according to a media report [read: Tablet Market Share In India] the elbow room in this Big Players room is slowly diminishing. Apple still continues to woo the market by its ever evolving features and niche offering, while players like Motorola’s XOOM, RIM’s Playbook, LG’s OPTIMUS, HTC’s Flyer & Acer’s MOBILE ICONIA are having a tough time keeping up the pace and the at the same time innovating with price effectiveness.
Tablet Price in India: Rs.15,000 – Rs.25,000
Although not a windfall, but slowly and steadily this segment has gathered momentum which is getting stronger by the day. To be fair this is the battleground of yesteryears champions and today’s street smart fighters. With both Indian and international brands fighting it out in this space, the segment has quite a few variants, the top 3 among them being:
- Notionink Adam : Rs.20,000(8GB)
- Samsung P100 Galaxy Tab : Rs.23,800(16GB)
- MSI WindPad 110W : Rs.23,500(16GB)
As for Samsung P100, although it may be outdated but it still is a power packed package for the money conscious yet quality enthusiasts. Moreover Notionink’s Adam is a revelation in itself. With a dual core ARM11 cortex processor and a NVIDIA Tegra accelerator, this Hyderabad originated tablet has some breathtaking features, almost comparable to Apple iPad and yet at sub 20,000 ranges. Worth mention are also HCL’s ME series, CREATIVE’s ZiiO & VIEWSONIC’s ViewPad. These are still in there nascent phases and will undergo a host of changes to make them more power efficient and smarter in terms of faster computing.
Tablet Price in India: SUB 15,000
This is the most dynamic of the 3 segments. Almost every day you can find a new sub 15,000 tablet being launched in India. The biggest compromise this segment makes is the replacement of the capacitive touch screens by the less reliable and less efficient Resistive touch screen. The top 3 in this segment are:
- Olive OLIVEPAD VT100 : Rs.15,000(microSD card slot memory)
- Reliance 3G TAB : Rs.13,000(4GB microSD card memory)
- Huawei IDEOS Slim : Rs.8,850(microSD card slot memory)
Reliance 3G Tab also supports features of a Mobile TV which is quite unique in this segment. Apart from these, this segment had seen a rush of entries from all parts of the tablet market. Manufacturer like ACCORD (Pad), BEETEL(MagiQ), FUJEZONE, BINATONE(easyTAB) & ZINGLIFE have all launched products in the market since the meteoric rise of the tablet market in India.
To sum it up, although much is left to be seen as to how the overall tablet segment unfolds in India, but the race for the top spot is being keenly contested between the Samsung Galaxy TAB 750 and the Apple iPad. May the best Tab win!!
[Guest article by Dilip Gandhi.]
