Consumer tablet shipments in India posted a sharp decline of 28% in Q4 2017 when compared to the same period last year. This was due to low demand, research firm IDC said in its Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker report. However, including commercial segment shipments, India’s tablet market shipped 701,000 units during the quarter, down by 2.2% from 716,000 unit shipments in the previous quarter. Commercial segment shipments accounted for 1/3rd of overall tablet shipments, acting as a "key driver for offsetting the declining consumer shipments," IDC added. IDC did not expand more on the reason for the decline. However, in November, it had predicted that demonetization would bring down tablet sales. Prior to demonetization in Q3 2016, the Indian tablet industry shipped 1.06 million units—the first time in this financial year that the tablet shipments have crossed the 1 million mark. But, tablet shipments in Q4 2016 suffered a 19.6% sequential decline due to the cash crunch. Shipments by Category 4G devices on the rise: Tablets with 4G connectivity accounted for around 39.2% of the overall market shipments in Q1 2017, up by 15.3% when compared to Q1 2016. Note that Samsung had led the 4G segment in the previous quarter. Display size: Shipments of tablets with a screen size of 7-7.9 inches dropped by 70% in Q1 2017 for the first time in recent years, IDC said in its report. The 8-8.9 inch segment contributed 12.3% of shipments during the quarter, up from 8.9% in Q1 2016. Tablets with…
