Telecom Lead India: Indian tablet market is expected to touch 1.6 million units in the current financial year and grow to reach 7.3 million units by 2015-16.

Indian tablet market to grow at a CAGR of 40 percent over the next 5 years

Entry-level budget tablets and mid-range devices will drive growth in the Indian mobile market

Services such as –Governance, education and healthcare – will be the key drivers of the tablet revolution across the country.

“The tablet market is the new blue-eyed growth opportunity in India.  It is fast becoming one of the drivers of rapid growth in the IT content consumption and hardware sector in India. With the introduction of several national and international brands of tablet in India, the market is witnessing a revolution of sorts with these devices changing the way services are delivered in various other sectors such as education, healthcare and governance. Tablets will soon enable and empower even our rural areas with services bridging the last mile connectivity gap through these devices,” said Alok Bhardwaj, president, MAIT.

A key factor in the growth of tablets has been the encouragement from the government in adopting and developing low-cost options for use in our villages and other rural areas.

Education and healthcare services are now being accessed by many more people with the help of low-cost tablet. Tablets being one of the cheapest devices available in the Indian market, it is a potential device that can transform the entire country, as any content in any language can effectively work on this device.

It is an evolving market and the industry will see emergence of value based tablet devices as an important segment. Developing ecosystem for this device will ensure that tablets as a computing device will become an integral part of human lives.

“Apart from being a consumer lifestyle product I see a huge uptake of the tablet in the education segment and it is a device which has all the potential to revolutionize the education system,” said MAIT Vice President, JV Ramamurthy.

According to a recent TelecomLead.com news report, ABI Research said the sub-$400 media tablets will grab more than 60 percent market share by 2016, while the market for the over $400 segment is expected to shrink.

There are currently more than 220 media tablet models in the market. While the Apple iPad remains the market leader in the media tablet segment, the buzz created by iPad has paved the way for more and more vendors to join the race, especially in the lower price segment.

[email protected]