United Nations has declared the year 2011 as the year of forests, but it could easily be declared as the year of tablets. While the western world has their fair share of tablets dazzling them every week, India has so far seen a dozen tablets. More than 100 tablets were showcased in the CES 2011 and many of them will never make it to India. The reasons are manifold. Some cannot find India on world map, some don’t even know India exists, some don’t even think there is market beyond North America and some simply don’t care. India might see a change in the launch of products. Thanks to its homegrown companies like Micromax, Olive and Lava, India will get its fair share of tablets.
The products that will be launched by these companies might not be world class, but they will satiate the computing appetite of India at cut throat prices. Indian upstarts after taking a 40% domestic share in mobile space are looking to capture a similar share in the tablet space. India sells less than 10,000 tablets a month and this is bound to increase with impending 3G launch.
Upcoming tablet launches in India
G’Five is already field testing its tablet in India and will launch two Android tablets and one windows tablet in the first week of April. The tablets will come in 7-inch and 10-inch screen sizes and would be priced around Rs. 10000.
Lava Mobiles will introduce a Android tablet in the price range of Rs. 15000 to Rs. 20000.
Zen Mobile will launch a 10-inch Android tablet in April. Zen tablet will be priced in the range of Rs. 15000 to Rs. 20000.
Olive which has introduced India’ first tablet will launch a slimmer and revised version of its Olivepad.
Micromax, Acer and Fly are set to launch their tablets too.
The price range of these upcoming tablets is something to be noted. There isn’t a tablet in India which is launched in the price range of Rs. 15000 to Rs. 20000. This could be a sweet spot for many consumers in terms of pricing and features. The tablets launched so far either in the sub-10K range with low processing speeds or they are just too expensive in the sub-40K range. It always pays to take the middle route.
I am sure none of these tablets are manufactured in India but are procured from Taiwan and China. The vendors in China and Taiwan typically provide the base design of upto 40% and the other 60% is left with the clients. Micromax and Spice has worked out this strategy very well. The same strategy will work out for tablets very effectively. It would be interesting to see what kind of innovation will the Indian upstarts bring in the tablet space. A tablet which will morph to a pillow, may be.
Source : ET
