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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  Ourviews | Overdose of low-cost tablets
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Ourviews | Overdose of low-cost tablets

Ourviews | Overdose of low-cost tablets

File photo of ‘Akash’tablet computer (Mint)Premium

File photo of ‘Akash’tablet computer (Mint)

Another day. And another “leading" Indian manufacturer of peripherals and computer hardware decides to launch a low-cost tablet computer that runs off some near-obsolete version of an open source operating system. Over the last 24 months or so we have seen an endless number of brands launch an equally endless number of tablets. Most of them are showcased as “low-cost", "educational" products targeted for an “Indian" audience.

File photo of ‘Akash’tablet computer (Mint)

It is easy to see why so many marketers—HCL, Olive, Intex, Micromax, Milagrow, Kobian—are so eager to jump on to the tablet bandwagon. They all, no doubt, see the astonishing success that no-name mobile phones have had in the Indian market. According to a March report by CyberMedia Research, Micromax is the third largest shipper of units with a 5% market share. In the multi-SIM mobile segment, that accounts for 57% of the total market, importers such as Micromax sell 71% of devices.

These new tablet vendors hope the same spurning of big name brands happen in the tablet segment as well. This seems unlikely. Buying a phone that can make calls and play multimedia is one thing. A versatile tablet that is good enough to be a primary computing device is another.

These brands are perhaps forgetting that tablets existed for years before the iPad happened. Nobody bought them because these devices sucked. Just because you can now import generic hardware cheaply does not mean customers are willing to make compromises. There is undoubtedly a market for affordable tablets. But not for these dubious cop-outs.

Should companies stop flooding the market with dubious low-cost tablets? Tell us at views@livemint.com

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Published: 10 May 2012, 09:12 PM IST
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