Both iPads and Macs have enjoyed remarkable success in India, a market in which price often dominates purchase criteria.
New market intelligence data suggests that Apple saw 135% growth in iPad shipments in the final quarter of last year. This saw it overtake previous market leader Samsung to become the best-selling tablet brand in the country …
Canalys data shows that quarterly shipments of iPads increased from 172,000 in Q4 2021 to 404,000 in the same quarter of 2022. This saw Apple’s market share rise dramatically, from 13.7% to 34.7%. This was enough to take the top slot from Samsung, which shipped 354,000 tablets in the same period.
Apple surpassed Samsung in Q4 2022 to take the lead in the Indian tablet market, with its new iPad launches a big success during the holiday season. Despite ceding the top spot, Samsung had a relatively good quarter, with shipments up 12% year on year. Its tablets have performed well in the commercial segment, and it is likely to gain further traction in this space. Lava came third in the quarter and fourth in 2022. Its strong position in the education space will drive growth in 2023 and beyond. Acer and Lenovo took the final two spots in the top five vendor rankings in Q4.
The company doesn’t break out Mac sales separately, but does provide combined data for tablets and PCs, so subtracting iPads from the total indicates 171M Mac sales in Q4 in a declining PC market. Combined sales grew 60.2%, seeing Apple overtake both Lenovo and Dell.
Looking ahead, Canalys says that the education market is going to be a key battleground for tablets this year and next.
“Education will be an important segment for PCs and tablets in India this year and beyond,” said Aithal. “With the full list of tenders the government has offered, the tablet industry has enormous potential. Bridging the digital divide to provide wider education access is a key public sector goal, with investment expected to ramp up at all levels over the next few years. Meanwhile, enterprise deals that are on hold due to current economic conditions are set to re-emerge and boost the market recovery in 2024.”
Apple does face strong competition here from much cheaper local tablet brands – even though these have enjoyed limited success so far.
“One emerging development to look out for is the rise of locally manufactured, Android-powered notebooks, such as Reliance’s JioBook and the new Primebook 4G,” added Aithal. “Despite very competitive price points, these devices have so far not gained major traction, mostly due to their basic specifications and issues around the OS experience on a PC. But with quality improvements and a stronger go-to-market strategy, they have the potential to offer an alternative option for education deployments and to draw in first-time PC users.”
We recently learned that Apple has been pushing for more relaxed labor laws for its manufacturing partners in India.
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