The market has also seen the introduction of tablets targeted at specialized verticals such as education and enterprises. The government announced the Aakash initiative, with the intent of offering $35 tablets subsidized to students, creating further interest and opportunities for the Indian market. As the first of the educational institutes consider deployments of tablets, Telecom operators such as Reliance have also rolled out tablets with attractive tariff plans and at mid-tier rates.
The tablet value proposition for the Indian consumer is dependent on a combination of affordability, user experience, aspiration and utility. As the core value proposition is yet to be understood by consumers (as certain consumer segments question the need for a third device), the tablet’s ability to be ‘something for everybody’ needs to be optimally exploited by the various players for the Indian market. There are challenges for adoption - lack of ubiquitous 3G coverage and faster data speeds deter users from an optimal user experience, prevalent digital privacy, low digital content sales and lack of alternate payment models are all impediments for uptake of tablets.
Globally, tablets are following the adoption path of smartphones and not of netbooks. We believe it will be a similar case in India as well. In 2012, a majority of the sales are expected to come from the retail channel and consumers will choose to purchase either a smartphone or tablet but not both (at least within six to nine months of purchase of the former).
Significant adoption by verticals such as education and the unconnected segment is not expected before 2013. Tablet adoption in India has been projected from the installed base, as well as growth of different mobile phones and other ecosystem enablers. Based on all these scenarios, we expect tablets could potentially reach over 5.5 million units by 2014.
To highlight the opportunities that India presents, the India market breakdown is as follows at the time of release of this report. India currently has over 100 million active Internet users, over 50 million PC owners, between 15 million and 18 million 3G subscribers, over 140 million TV households, over 540 million unique mobile device owners, over 20 million smartphone users, over 2.3 million IT and ITES workforce and over 36 million Facebook users.