Apparently, consumers worldwide understand that you get what you pay for. Despite a series of low-cost media tablet launches in the second half of 2011, Apple’s iPad has managed to maintain its premier position in the Indian market with 51% market share in 2011.

Samsung’s achievement at extending its success in the handset segment to the tablet segment, with its Galaxy Tab, allowed Samsung to occupy the second spot with 24% market share. Indian consumers also showed a strong penchant for RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook after prices were slashed significantly, making it the third largest player with a 10.4% market share.

The presence of ultra-low cost media tablets with non-optimal specifications might ruin the user experience and, in turn, prove to be a dampener for media tablet growth. Although there is lot of buzz in the Indian market, media tablets are yet to demonstrate their value proposition to Indian consumers," says ABI Research analyst Aishwarya Singh.

"While there are several media tablets being launched in the sub-$200 price range, simply lowering the average selling price of media tablets may not lead to the desired growth in the market," he says.

In India, total media tablet shipments in 2011 are estimated to be 0.39 million units, which is a very small fraction of the nearly 65 million shipped globally. However, the Indian media tablet market is estimated to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 71% and shipments are expected to growth to 9.66 million units in 2017.

-- Dennis Sellers