For India?s technology sector, tablets business in particular, business sentiments have shown improvement post elections and near term prospects are anticipated to remain better too. Anticipating improved discretionary spends by end users especially during the ongoing festive season, the Chinese technology major Lenovo launched its next marque product in the tablet segment?the Yoga 2?last week hoping to make a comeback in the Indian tablet market. Priced
between R20,990 to R47,990, the range comprising of four devices will be available on e-commerce site, Flipkart.
A quick glimpse of the Indian tablet market reveals that the slate market has indicated early signs of recovery in Q2 2014 after taking a sharp hit in the past couple of quarters. According to IDC, tablet market shipments in India stood at 0.86 million units in Q2 2014, that is, a quarter-on-quarter growth of 9% over Q1 2014. ?This recovery was fuelled by multiple factors. While business sentiments have shown improvement post elections, the traditional PC original equipment manufacturers have started making big inroads in the tablet market and most of this success is led by leveraging their vast expanded reach through multiple distribution points,? said Karan Thakkar, senior market analyst, IDC India.
Back to the Lenovo offerings. The range is powered by Intel Atom processor and will be available in Windows and Android platforms. The Yoga 2 includes features like full HD, Dolby Wolfson HiFi audio, 8 megapixel rear and 1.6 megapixel HD front camera making it an entertainment tablet. ?The Yoga range has become a franchise of its own. It accounts for a good percentage of our tablet sales,? said Amar Babu, managing director, Lenovo India. ?We believe in innovation and designing products that can drive the growth of the sector and thus we came out with the Yoga 2 which will be a game-changer in the segment,? he added.
The Yoga range, popular for its Stand, Hold and Tilt modes, will now include a ?Hang? option to allow better usage of the device. ?Our study has shown that consumers want to use tablets in a handy way and that is what we are offering,? said Bhaskar Choudhuri, director (marketing), Lenovo India.
Asked the reason for launching new tablets in an uncertain tablet market, the Lenovo India MD said the segment was on the rise. ?There was a correction in the market with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standard kicking in and now there are better products in the market. Analysts already have indicated that the market is set to improve in the months to come,? he said.
?We are aiming to achieve global sales to the tune of 100 million PC+devices, including tablets this financial year,? said Rohit Midha, director, Tablet Business Unit, Lenovo India. ?Owing to our increasing focus on digital millennials, India as a youth market forms a crucial part of our PC+strategy. Our association with a leading online player like Flipkart will make it possible to expand our reach to the country?s online and tech-savvy audience,? he added.
The Chinese electronics major also hinted that it is all set to become India?s third largest smartphone company with the completion of $2.91 billion acquisition of US-based handset maker Motorola later this year. The company is already the number one player in the PC market in India. In the Indian smartphone market, Lenovo lags behind Motorola, which is the fourth largest player. ?We will become the third largest smartphone seller in India after the Motorola operations get integrated with us by the year-end,? Babu said, adding, ?Lenovo will continue to develop devices that can be competitively priced and become
widely popular in India.?
