Consumers spoilt for choice as tablets flood Indian market

Standing in an electronics store, Smriti is confused about which tablet personal computer (PC) she should buy. Her budget is R20,000 and the market is offering her a range of tablets priced between R8,000 and R40,000.

Like all gizmo freaks, she wants to check out the Apple iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy, which offer a better experience as they all come equipped with high-resolution widescreen displays and are light weight compared with their less expensive (read mass market) counterparts.

Considering her budget, she knows she can?t buy these and hence, is looking for as many features bundled in an affordable product.

In the premium products, she finds that the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook features a new OS called BlackBerry Tablet OS besides a dual-core 1GHz processor compared with a1Ghz single-core on the iPad and Galaxy Tab.

Moreover, the PlayBook takes pride in a 1GB RAM which is twice as much as the Tab and four times as much as the iPad. On the other hand, an iPad lookalike Creative?s ZiiO, available in both 7 inches and10 inches, is not as elegant as its original.

Further, Smriti finds that it is not as sleek as the Samsung Galaxy Tab which also has unique features like geo-magnetic sensors and ambient light sensors.

Though the hit on her pocket will be less if she goes in for a product like Reliance Communications? Reliance3G Tab which is loaded with a 512 MB RAM- much less compared to the premium products. The tab is mounted with a 2.0 MP rear camera and a front camera, which may not be the best for camera users. It is priced at R12,999 and comes in a 7-inch form factor for Internet browsing and e-mail access, social networking, video streaming and gaming on the go.

This is confusing for Smriti as the Indian market is flooded with tablets and almost 85,000 tablet PCs were shipped in India for the period ended March 2011- an impressive number considering that tablets were introduced in the latter half of the last year. Moreover, analysts estimate 2.5 lakh units to be shipped by the end of this calender year.

All consumer electronic majors like Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, LG Electronics and Toshiba have all come out with their products catering to the premium, middle and mass market segments.

So, the Apple iPad worth R40,000, BlackBerry PlayBook, Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy are the premium products while those priced between R10,000-R15,000 are for the middle segment and are made by ZTE, Reliance Communication and Olive Telecom.

One can make power point presentations and take high resolution pictures in the high-end ones which are also GPS enabled.

?The mass market tablets are priced below R10,000 and are made by home-grown firms instead of the international players. Also, because tablets are somewhere between full-fledged laptops and smartphones, they are mostly used for data consumption like internet browsing and multi-media content. However, their usage is still in the evolution stage,? said Naveen Mishra, lead analyst at CyberMedia Research.

One such tablet is Magnum by Bangalore-based Lakshmi Access Communications Systems (LACS) starting from just $99 (R4,500) and is an all-in-one device bundled with ?infotainment features integrating social networking, communication, entertainment, education and gaming.

Despite being affordable, Smriti notes that she will miss out the 1-1.2 GHz processors of the high-end tabs as the Magnum has a 800-MHz processor.

Interestingly, the LACS tablet comes with two unique types of warranty ? an upgrade warranty, wherein the consumer can upgrade to a newer technology device at a small incremental cost, and a damage warranty, wherein a new device is shipped directly to the consumer in the rare event of the device having a problem. Such innovative marketing is also expected to attract consumers as explained by Mahendra Kumar D Jain, managing director, LACS.

?We believe that products alone, no matter how advanced they might be, cannot drive sales among masses; that there has to be a well planned marketing and distribution network to make it happen,? he noted.

While the premium customers going for high-end products are attracted by more applications and a better user experience, the mass market tabs are primarily price determined.

Beetel Teletech which recently launched the Beetel Magiq, an android 2.2 tablet with a 2 MP front and rear camera and 8GB internal memory which is expandable to 16 GB, is priced at R9,999.

Vinod Sawhny, executive director and chief executive, Beetel Teletech Limited explained: ?The Beetel Magiq has been designed looking at the technology needs of the extremely demanding Indian customers. Our tablet is not only about affordability but also about aspirational features which were previously available in the high-end devices and not within the reach of the majority of Indian customers.?

In August 2011, more than 50 models of tablet PCs were available in India and the going is strong with many more to be launched soon and expected to follow the path of mobile phones.