According to IDC, tablet shipments in India inclusive of slate and detachables clocked 1.06 million in the third quarter of 2016, remaining stagnant over the same period last year. However, total tablet shipments grew 7.8% in the third quarter of 2016 over the second quarter of 2016 as vendors prepared the channel to cater to the consumer demand for upcoming festive month.

Karthik J, senior market analyst, Client Devices, IDC India, pointed out that "Commercial segment continues to grow at a healthy pace accounting to over one-fifth of total tablet shipments in the third quarter of 2016 with key contributors being education, government and large Enterprise segments. Commercial segment also contributed to majority of detachable shipments in the third quarter of 2016 driving the product category's volume to almost double over the previous quarter".

Shipments of tablets with 4G support sees a steady uptake in India, up by 55% in the third quarter of 2016 over the previous quarter. "4G tablets accounted for almost one-fourth of total tablet shipments in the third quarter of 2016 in relative to 15.3% in the first quarter of this year. Samsung dominated the 4G tablets category in the quarter with its newly launched J max", said Karthik J.

Datawind continued to lead Indian tablet market with 26.1% share in the third quarter of 2016. With fully functional second manufacturing plants in India, increasing retail presence and television sales in deeper pockets of India, the vendor's volume grew 73% over the same period last year.

Samsung maintained its second position with a healthy 26.2% growth over the previous quarter in the third quarter of 2016. Vendor's newly launched J max received good response from the market driving the consumer segment.

iBall managed to be at the third place as shipments grew marginally by 2.9% sequentially in the third quarter of 2016. However, vendor's shipments dropped 7.5% on year.

Lenovo stood at fourth place with 15.5% sequential growth in the third quarter of 2016 and 13.3% over the same period last year. While commercial segment continues to be a major contributor for the vendor, its consumer shipments grew over 50% in the third quarter of 2016 owing to the festive season.

Micromax retained its place in top 5 although its shipments remained flattish over previous quarter and had a 39% on-year drop. The vendor shifted its focus from detachable to entry-level clamshell notebook category has resulted in negligible presence in detachable category in recent quarters.

"Tablet shipments are expected to drop sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2016 coming off from the spike for festive season in the third quarter. As a result, India's 2016 tablet shipments are likely to decline marginally over 2015. Detachables are expected to see healthy shipments in the last quarter of 2016 to account for little over 5% of total tablet shipments in 2016, compared to 2.7% in 2015." said Navkendar Singh, senior research manager, IDC India.