New Delhi: Tablet shipments in India during the April-June quarter could be "negatively impacted" by GST implementation as distributors are likely to be cautious on procuring new inventory, research firm IDC today said.
The new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is slated to take effect from July 1. Billed as the single biggest tax reform since independence, the GST will unify 16 different taxes and will transform India into a single market.
IDC feels however that retailers and city/state level distributors have concerns around lower tax credit and lack of complete clarity on the processes. "This may lead to a limited inventory stocking, especially in the June 2017," IDC India Senior Research Manager Navkendar Singh said.
He added that the impact is expected to be short spanned as distribution channels prepare themselves for the festive season in third quarter. During the January-March 2017 quarter, 7.01 lakh tablets were shipped in India, recording a marginal drop of 2.2 per cent from 7.16 lakh units in the previous quarter. The tablet shipment declined by 18.6 per cent compared to the year-ago period.
Samsung led the tally with 21.3 per cent share during the said quarter, followed by Datawind (20.7 per cent), Lenovo (20 per cent), iBall (17.2 per cent) and Apple (5.3 per cent).
The commercial segment accounted for one-third of total tablet shipments in India. According to Celso Gomes, Associate Market Analyst (Client Devices) at IDC India, the commercial segment was the key driver for offsetting the declining consumer shipments in India.
"Due to growing digital proliferation across industries, commercial segment especially large enterprise, government and education sectors, are expected to increase their demand for tablets," he said.
This will drive vendors to focus more aggressively in gaining market share in the commercial market to sustain the India tablet market, he added. Consumer segment declined 28 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year, IDC said.
