What triggered me to write this blog on tablets is a conversation that I had last week with a tea stall owner in Uttarakhand. I was on my way back from a weekend vacation when my driver decided to stop at a roadside ‘dhaba’. I stepped out too to breathe in the pleasant early morning breeze. I carried the iPad with me and was browsing through emails and calendar for the week ahead. The tea stall owner looked at the device with curiosity and asked, “Sirjee, yeh computer to nahi lag raha hai, kya koi naya video game nikla hai?” (Sir, this doesn’t look like a computer, is it some new video game?). He also clarified that it didn’t resemble much like laptop either. At the same time he was clear that it was some form of a computing device. I said it’s a ‘tablet’ from Apple-iPad. He smiled at the term ‘tablet’ and mentioned “Tablet to doctor log dete the bukhar wagera thik karne ke liye lekin aisa tablet toh maine pehli baar dekha hai”(It was doctors who used to prescribe tablets and now people play with tablets )- that was his interpretation of the technology evolution.
It
was funny and satirical but he made his point- while technology has made
inroads through hardware, software, application and devices, the advancement is
still very much restricted to urban India. Moreover the pace of introducing new
products is so fast that even before there is acceptance and adoption in tier
II and III cities, there is a range of new devices being launched parallely for
consumers in the market. Technology; thus has a small shelf life and in most
cases is either upgraded with a new variant or completes its lifecycle too soon
- this has been the typical ecosystem of the biggest innovations in the recent
days.
In
India, as I see other than consumer electronic goods; technology and devices
that have impacted tier II and III cities are mobile phones, smart phones,
digital cameras, MP3 , USB’s, desktop computing and notebooks. However the
future lies in tablets. Now, when I say the future lies in tablets, it is quite
a bold statement to make; however I do
foresee a market movement towards the very ironically coined term ‘tablets’. And
as Frost & Sullivan study predicts, the Indian tablet market would grow to
23.38 million units by 2017.
If we look at the tablet market in India, it is still at a nascent stage but there are around 100 models from multiple manufacturers/procurers that have launched their version of the tablet device in India. The Olivepad launched just about two years back- July 2010, was one of the first tablet devices in India. Samsung was the first major international brand to launch a tablet- the Samsung Galaxy, which was followed by Apple iPad’s launch in Jan 2011. Therefore entry of tablets in India has been recent in history and we already have a clutter in the market at multiple price points starting from INR 5000. This is much unlike mobile phones where big brands like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson ruled the roost in the initial days. In a way clutter in the tablet market is good for India, as not only do consumers’ buy tablets at retail, but business users are adopting tablets with concepts like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Industry analysts feel that demand for such devices from both consumer and enterprise verticals are growing up and sectors like insurance are using tablets for front-end customization. However the real move in the category is coming from Government adoption in sectors like e-Gov, education and social development etc.
And
this is where I see the tablet actually making a difference to the tea stall
owner in Uttarakhand. Today Govt agents are using tablets for real time data
collection on demographics and uploading it to the cloud and dairy farms are
using tablets for real time milk collections etc. With applications like these,
we will see technology making a difference to the people. And this is where
tablets make a real difference in bridging the digital divide between urban and
rural India.
Education
is also one sector, where tablets are changing the landscape of teaching
mechanism. Age old ‘pathsalas’ are now
evolving with modern day use of tablets. Teachers and students across use it
for ease of solving mathematics, reasoning and grammar. Today, there are
several OEM’s who have stormed into the sector.
The Education ministry is driving the impetus to reform the age old
structure of imparting education and ushering in the digital revolution at this
grass root level. And it’s not just Akash tablets; there are several
indigenously built tablet manufacturers who are aiming this space with a clear
intent of growing businesses through simplifying teaching mechanism at lower
costs and make learning easier for students with digital modules.
This is where tablets would bridge the urban rural divide — A device that is a mode of utility services, infotainment and entertainment to an urban user would be a device for development in rural India; much like its predecessor the ‘mobile phone’. However with innovation in app industry, apps such as nexGTv- a simple and easy to use Mobile TV, will usher the entertainment-on-tablets revolution across India and make tablets a mass product. Though on contrary, by the end of this year we will have the overall mobile handset market reaching to about 20 crores devices and smart phone to about 2 crores, the tablet market is estimated to be about 3 lakhs+. The number looks relatively small when compared to mobile or the smart phone market but this number will grow double digits and soon we will see content which is localized, apps which are custom built in vernacular languages and availability of devices at affordable price range.
Tablets will be the next big thing in the technology industry and much like mobile phones it will impact urban and rural India alike. While apps around utility services, infotainment and entertainment will influence sales in urban markets; basic and easy to use apps in vernacular language will influence bulk buying by Government for E-Governance and education projects in rural India. The market will move from urban to tier II and III penetration in about 2-3 years with low cost tablets at the price of smart phones and aggressive marketing by indigenously developed tablets.
I conclude seeing a tablet revolution coming through in about 2-3 years, if not the tea stall owner using it but being aware of a device with ease of computing and a world of apps; something similar to smart phones, what do you have to say?
Thanks
GD
Rightly pointed out the way our technology is progressing in terms of different gadgets like smart phone, tablet or newly launched 'PHABLET' (as Samsung Note is called).
ReplyDeleteAlthough the gap between Urban & Rural audience in terms the current understanding of technology update might be big but I also have seen a pattern where this divide actually not that bad...
and Why so, because of leapfrogging...
Because of our Govt's Snail speed of 3G roll out I expect most of users might get their hand on 4G(which is coming next year) before they can experience 3G.
Same goes with devices, I can see many first time technology users(specially from Rural ares), directly using tablets(because of low cost) skipping all together PCs or Laptop.
Although on One Side PHABLET or similar devices are NOT basically the 'content creation' devices but more of a 'content Consumer' one , but it gives you a great start to feel technology and be part of this race.
Another important point to note is that although we are progressing a lot in terms of hardware , we equally deserve to have radical progress for our underlying infrastructure (Internet speed, Contents )So that in next 2-3 years we are still not waiting for our IPL match keep loading....and I go back to my wired TV...:)