Lenovo outpaces Apple and Samsung to remain tablet champion in India

Samsung, which released a host of new tablets earlier this year — Galaxy Tab A8, S8, S8 Plus and S8 Ultra — sold the third most number of tablets, snagging a  22 percent market share in the quarter. The South Korean giant grew 81 percent annually, predominantly because of its expanded tablet lineup.

 

Menka Kumari, analyst (Industry Intelligence Group), CMR, said the demand for tablets was fuelled by the rise and ebb of COVID-19 cases in the country, which meant work-from-home and study-from-home were encouraged.

"(The pandemic)  is continuing to fuel the adoption of tablets for work, e-learning and content-consumption use cases. The education and healthcare sector have contributed to the uptick in the overall tablet market in India," Kumari said.

According to the report, tablets with a screen size of 8 inches and above constituted 26 percent of the overall sales, while those with 10-inch screens or larger were the most popular, comprising 61 percent of all shipments. Tablets with 4G connectivity registered a 71 percent yearly growth, the report added.

In the report, CMR said it expects tablet shipments to grow at a 10-12 percent rate in 2022.

“Driven by the increasing availability of 5G-capable tablets, as well as with new market entrants such as Xiaomi with its Pad 5, the tablet market in India is going to gain strength. With other potential market entrants — OPPO, Vivo and OnePlus — in the offing, consumers have more choices than before in the android tablet market. On the enterprise side, the commercial and government sector will continue to gain strength owing to the traction in digital economy and e-governance,” added Kumari.