India registered 1.20 million tablet shipments for the period July-September (Q3) 2013, posting only a moderate 9% growth year-on-year (YoY) from 1.1 million tablet shipments during July-September 2012 and a moderate 4.7% growth quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from 1.15 million tablet shipments during April – June 2013, according to CyberMedia Research's Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review. The firm attributed this modest growth to limited offerings from vendors struggling with BIS certification guidelines. It mentions that around 43 domestic and international vendors shipped tablets to the Indian market during the quarter, although only 13 vendors shipped in significant volumes of more than 20,000 units during the period. In comparison, around 70 domestic and international vendors had shipped tablets to the Indian market in the previous quarter. Note that the government had earlier ordered that 15 categories of electronic and IT products (which includes tablets) sold in India after April 2013 should carry BIS certification. The deadline was later extended to July 2013 (pdf). However Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) and electronic product manufacturers like Lenovo had pointed out that the deadline was impractical and could lead to a severe shortage of products in the Indian market, as indicated by a Times Of India report. Following this, the government provided (pdf) a three months extension to October 2013 and an additional extension of three months to January 2014, which the government mentioned would be the last extension to manufacturers. Therefore its quite possible that the growth of tablet shipments could decline further in the forthcoming quarters, unless the rate of manufacturers securing the BIS certification increases significantly. Samsung…
