Tablets starting to see growth - Express Computer

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1 - 15 December 2011

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Tablets starting to see growth

Despite the macroeconomic conditions, India Inc. is starting to embrace tablets and the government sector is leading PC buying, driven by centrally sponsored schemes for state governments. By Venkatesh Ganesh The story of India Inc.s PC buying in 2011 had a small twist. Sales of tablets, the computing devices that have infused a fresh lease of life into the moribund PC business, have finally started to pick up in India. In October, Datawind came up with a $60 tablet ($30 when subsidized) that could spark off interest in this segment and, over a period of time, could lower the prices of tablets. The $60 tablet, which will be available for retail sale has an inbuilt modem and a SIM card to access the Internet. A few days before the launch of the $60 tablet, RCom and Beetel announced their tablet forays, which were priced in the Rs. 12,000-13,000 range. Looking at the slew of entries from newcomers such as the Aakash tablet or Reliance ADAGs 3G Tab as well as devices from established players such as Apple and Samsung, this space is set for exciting days ahead. While there are no official estimates with regard to the number of tablets sold in the country, conservative estimates from device makers suggest that approximately 200,000 tablets have been sold to date in India. Tablets making inroads
Tablet Featues Price The Galaxy Tab 750 and 730 feature Samsungs own TouchWiz user interface implemented on the Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) platform, offering faster and smoother transitions between different applications. It supports 3G HSPA+ network speeds of up to 21Mbps as well as Samsung Galaxy Tab Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 also includes 730 and an Nvidia Tegra 1GHz dual core application 750 processor for gaming and multimedia. Pre-loaded with Readers Hub giving consumers access to 2.2 million books, 2,000 newspaper (49 languages) and 2,300 magazines (22 languages). There is an option to insert a SIM card to enjoy 3G phone functions. Comes with 3.5G HSDPA/HSUPA service, MS Office support and Google Android 2.2 OS. powered with the Intel 1.66GHz processor, and comes with an integrated memory of 1GB and 16GB SSD HDD storage. The device is equipped with dual webcams, 3.0 megapixel image quality and auto-focus lens, on both sides of the device.

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Enterprises going for tablets One of India's largest mutual fund

"Despite not having access to a

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providers has placed an order for a traditional PC, there could be a large workforce that will have their first thousand tablets of ViewSonic. experience around smartphones and These 7 inch tablets are being tablets." Ajay Sharma provided to top sales executives Country Head -India, who are being encouraged to use ViewSonic Technologies these devices for selling more insurance policies. This insurance company is using our tablet to make presentations and sending their periodic reports to their headquarters, said Ajay Sharma, Country Head - India, ViewSonic Technologies. Similarly, investment bankers and the top management at private sector banks as well as the top brass in multinationals are using tablets. Apart from the financial sector, other sectors such as FMCG and healthcare are adopting tablets too. Medical reps are being given tablets to showcase their products to doctors and send feedback on their interactions to their managers. Smart Sky Electronics and Research is working with a known Indian retailer to arm its workforce with tablets. Sales people in Indian retail do not have an iota of information on the products that they are selling. Coupled with a wide variety of gadgets that they are selling, we are working on training these sales people to enable a customer to compare the products sold in order to help them to make decisions on the spot, said Samartha Raghava Nagabhushanam, CEO, Smart Sky Electronics and Research. It is interesting to note that when the smartphone first surfaced around 2005, a lot of enterprises in India gave these devices to their field executives to improve both productivity and business. This same trend seems to be playing out initially in the tablet space. In a country where smartphones and tablets could be the first computing device coupled with a young population that is about to enter the workforce in the next five years, vendors are looking at a long term play. Despite not having access to a traditional PC, there could be a large workforce that will have their first experience around smartphones and tablets, said Sharma. Others disagree. A tablet is good "A tablet is good for content for content consumption but not so consumption but not great for content creation. if you look at the great for content creation and if ecosystem, the bulk of it is centered around consumption with 3G yet to you look at the ecosystem, pick up pace." currently, the bulk of it is centered Saji Kumar Head Product Management, Acer India around content consumption with things like 3G yet to pick up pace, said Saji Kumar, Head Product Management, Acer India. The other factor is a lack of good quality applications that can drive the adoption of tablets, which has been the case in developed markets. Analysts see this as a chicken and egg situation. According to Gartner, worldwide media tablet sales are expected to reach 54.8 million units in 2011, up 181% from 2010 and will eventually surpass 208 million units in 2014. While this is the reverse trend of what is being seen in the developed markets where these devices are being bought as a second or third computer. At a time when analysts have been revising their PC market forecasts with PC unit growth for both 2011 and 2012 having been pared down from previous projections (total unit shipments in 2012 are expected to barely reach 400 million units, which was originally a target for 2011) to 9.3% growth for 2011 and 12.8% growth for 2012, India has been relatively stable despite a blip couple of years back. Industry watchers opine that tablets will eventually cannibalize not just desktops but even other devices like e-readers, gaming devices and some high end smartphones. Then there is the netbook, which since the last year has been struggling to grow at the rate at which started to grow. Mini notebooks will suffer from the strongest cannibalization threat as media tablet average selling prices drop below $300 over the next two years, said Carolina Milanesi, Research Vice President, Gartner. Companies like Asus (the inventor of the netbook) themselves have launched the Eee Pad TransformerTF 101, which doubles up as a netbook (if need be) packs in 10.1 inch screen with a 1280800 IPS panel, 1 GHz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) operating system and 16 GB or 32 GB of memory and priced at Rs. 32,999. Weighing 680 grams, it comes with other featues such as 1 GB RAM, 5 megapixel rear camera, 1.2 megapixel frontcamera, 3.5 mm audio jack, HDMI, microSD card reader, 2 usb ports, Bluetooth 2.1, WLAN 802.11 b/g. Low-end consumer notebooks will only marginally suffer from the tablet surge. Gartner analysts expect a limited effect on sales of smartphones. The majority of the impact will be from 7-inch media tablets on high-end smartphones as it will be hard for a user to justify owning both when the differentiation in usage model is slim. Users buying a 7-inch tablet might opt for a lower priced smartphone with a

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smaller form factor. PC growth continues While tablets have garnered the buzz, sales of desktops and laptops continue to grow. The combined sales of desktops and laptops in India totaled 2.5 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a 13% increase over the third quarter of 2010, according to Gartner. A similar number was reflected in the second quarter of 2011. According to Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, growth was primarily driven by sales of mobile PCs (laptop sales grew 29% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2011). Similarly, IDC in its Q2 PC tracker pointed out that the Indian PC market stood at 2.44 million units with a revenue growth of 2.6% over the previous year. Both IDC and Gartner were of the view that this growth was primarily being driven by sales of mobile PCs. According to IDC, in the second quarter, mobile PC shipments grew 21.2% year-on-year. In the third quarter, Gartner estimated that mobile PC sales grew 29% year-on-year. The government sector contributed in a big way to the growth of the PC market. Acer won a deal with the Gujarat Informatics Limited, the arm of Gujarat government, for its desktops. Similarly, Acer and HCL Infosystems won a multi-crore deal with the Assam Electronics Development Corporation to provide laptops as a part of the government of Assam's way to honor meritorious students. The government of Karnataka, "We also plan to use tablets keeping in mind the mobility and ease of use." along with Intel and Educomp, Sabarish K announced a pilot program to bring Mission coordinator, Kerala State IT Mission, Department of IT, Kerala ICT education to 5,000 schools. This would include providing students with netbooks and laptops powered by Intels Atom processor. The Kerala State IT Mission went in for PDAs to equip the police and enforcement unit of motor vehicle department for generating e-challans this year. We also plan to use tablets keeping in mind the mobility and ease of use, said Sabarish K, Mission Coordinator, Kerala State IT Mission, Department of IT, Kerala. Other state governments decided to go for alternatives like thin clients. The government of Punjab selected NComputings virtual computers for 480 computer labs across schools in the state. This is a part of an initiative called ICT Education Project for Punjab, estimated to be valued at Rs. 7.5 crores, which will provide computer access to schoolchildren across the state. Feature-packed but still lacks utility Early adopters appear to be buying tablets for entertainment and social networking. For a customer who is on the go, a tablet is capable of doing videoconferencing and can sometimes even fill in for a smartphone, according to Sharma. Others like Huawei are betting on the fact that productivity applications for accessing documents on the move are finding takers. The recently launched Huawei MediaPad comes with pre installed applications like Document to Go. Lenovo's IdeaPad S10-3t tablet "Cos. have started looking for devices which can be used beyond comes with dual operating office hours and are willing to explore systems, upgradeable memory and beyond Microsoft os with high interest around Linux and Android." other features, which, company Rahul Agarwal officials say are some of the unique Exe. Director - Commercial Business, things that they offer. The bottom Lenovo India line is that of portability and usage beyond office work hours combined with a willingness to experiment with different operating systems. Compared to two years back, enterprises have now started looking for devices which can be used beyond the office hours and are willing to explore beyond the traditional Microsoft operating system with high interest levels around Linux and Android, said Rahul Agarwal, Executive Director - Commercial Business, Lenovo India. The lack of 3G connectivity at affordable prices is a constraint. Then there is also the issue of good quality applications that can be used on these devices. With the current 3G subscriber base hovering around 10 million over a year after 3Gs debut, its not encouraging. Looking ahead Users feel that features such as instant boot up and easier user interfaces are some key factors that they are looking forward to, especially with the iPad
"Mobility will dictate the form factor of devices in the coming years. we expect to see a proliferation of devices in different screen sizes to meet different needs." Shishir Singh Director - Product Marketing

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revolutionizing even that aspect in a Consumer & SMB, Dell India Managing Director, India computing device. Also, mobility is & SAARC, Polycom increasingly the buzzword and users want their applications centered on it. We believe that mobility will dictate the form factor of computing devices in the years to follow. Also, we expect to see a proliferation of devices in different screen sizes to meet different needs, as accessibility of information-on-the-go and the need to integrate mobility solutions into the work environment becomes inevitable, felt Shishir Singh, Director - Product Marketing Consumer and SMB, Dell India. While mobility is one part of the story, there are some nuts and bolts that need to be tweaked when it comes to a large number of computing devices. Instant boot-up is one feature which enterprises are now looking forward to and in our experiences, it should be less than ten seconds, said Agarwal. On the applications front enterprises are looking at things like location-based services and 3D-enablement of content. In general, features like 3D can be used to show more feature-rich representations in digitized catalogs in sectors like retail and location-based services, said Ken Parmelee, Senior Director of Product Management, Antenna Software. Also, as enterprises use different computing devices to do business and with increasing Cloud adoption, management issues are taking center stage. This is where thin clients and VDI providers are pushing their case. Ultimately it is about lower TCO and a small form factor that will be the key things in a computing device, said Kumar. Sharma talked of an interesting use case. In Taiwan, as soon as you get into a taxi, the driver gives you a tablet and you can monitor your journey to the destination in real-time. This opens up a whole lot of avenues across the value chainfrom application developers to device makers. While this is a far fetched possibility in India, it is a possibility nevertheless that can drive the usage of computing devices in days to come.
venkatesh.ganesh@expressindia.com

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