“If you happen to have a look at a pill, the primary benefit is that it’s a contact system. Most PCs in that value vary, clearly, will not be touch-enabled. That being stated, the variety of methods you possibly can work together with a pill immediately has elevated considerably,” explains Pankaj Harjai, Director, Tablets & Good Units, Lenovo India, as he highlights why shopper sentiment towards tablets has been shifting.
“If you happen to have a look at a Lenovo system, all of the tablets we’ve got launched within the final one and a half to 2 years include pen compatibility and most of them come bundled with a pen. The reason being that it provides a brand new dimension of interplay.”
Within the early 2010s, tablets started making their manner into the mainstream shopper market. Nevertheless, they have been primarily used as consumption gadgets: non-essential, however good to have. They provided an inexpensive option to watch films, browse the online, and entry purposes, so long as customers didn’t thoughts their limitations. This development continued for years till the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Out of the blue, tablets have been again within the dialog, with a surge in gross sales pushed by the necessity to attend on-line courses from house.
Pankaj Harjai, Director, Tablets & Good Units, Lenovo India. (Picture: Lenovo)
Publish-COVID, nevertheless, tablets have advanced considerably. They’re now highly effective sufficient to deal with video enhancing and graphically intensive duties. They characteristic high-quality audio system, supply desktop-like multitasking, include bigger and extra vibrant shows, and excel at drawing and note-taking. With lengthy battery life and assist for a wide range of equipment, tablets are opening up new markets and reaching a broader base of shoppers.
“The pill is not only a system primarily used for training or attending courses, because it was earlier. Sure, leisure has turn into a serious use case, however so has productiveness. It’s more and more turning into a secondary productiveness system for a lot of customers. Individuals have began accepting tablets way more than earlier than, even for his or her company work or every day duties like looking and emailing all backed by the highly effective enhancements in pill expertise,” Harjai advised indianexpress.com in an interview.
Three years in the past, Harjai remembers, Lenovo performed a shopper survey throughout 15 markets to grasp what sort of tablets shoppers have been searching for. Primarily based on the insights, the corporate recognized three main use circumstances: leisure, productiveness, and gaming. He says the tablets shipped beginning in 2023 have been closely influenced by these findings.
“Leisure was a key space, and naturally, COVID additionally introduced with it the OTT growth. Individuals have been at house, watching extra OTT content material, and consumption went up considerably. One of many insights we gained was that buyers wished tablets with greater screens and higher shows. Additionally they wished higher battery life as a result of in case you are watching two or three films back-to-back, you don’t wish to fear about charging. On prime of that, they have been searching for a greater expertise with the pen. So, leisure clearly grew to become an important use case.
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The second huge space was productiveness. For professionals such as you and me, carrying a laptop computer in every single place isn’t at all times sensible. With distant work turning into the norm, individuals wanted extra flexibility. That’s the place our newer kind elements got here in tablets that would additionally assist productiveness wants. And the third main use case that emerged was gaming,” he stated.
Like smartphones and different shopper product classes, tablets are additionally experiencing an analogous market development: premiumisation. Whereas tablets have but to completely substitute laptops, manufacturers like Lenovo are introducing extra premium choices that incorporate laptop-like options. Take the Yoga Tab Plus, for instance, a high-end pill that’s equal components productiveness and leisure machine, and even comes with a keyboard and stylus bundled within the field.
“Three years in the past, most of our tablets have been within the Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 value band. Right this moment, the Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 section has nearly doubled in simply two years, largely pushed by the truth that individuals now need higher gadgets and are keen to pay for them. If we provide a greater system and a greater expertise, shoppers are able to spend extra,” he stated. In actual fact, greater than 25 per cent of pill gross sales now come from the premium section, in comparison with entry-level fashions, with shoppers aged 18 to 35 driving this demand.
“Can we constantly run EMI schemes all year long? Perhaps not as extensively as within the cellular class. The refresh price for tablets isn’t as quick. Individuals have a tendency to alter their cellphones each six months to a yr, on common. However with tablets, we’ve got seen that they’re usually used for round two years. The affordability issue or frequent upgrading isn’t as vital. That stated, we do supply EMI and affordability applications throughout festive seasons or main occasions, and so they undoubtedly assist however to not the extent we see with smartphones,” Harjai responded when requested whether or not EMI schemes, like these provided for smartphones, are additionally serving to drive premium pill gross sales. Lenovo affords tablets within the vary of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000.
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As was hoped by market pundits two to 3 years in the past, 5G remains to be not a significant factor driving pill gross sales but, admits Harjai. “What we’ve got seen is that post-COVID, many individuals have robust Wi-Fi connectivity at house and on the workplace. Because of this, the demand for Wi-Fi-only tablets has gone up considerably over the previous two to 3 years. However I do suppose 5G will finally change that,” he stated.
Lenovo Yoga Tab Professional. (Picture: Lenovo)
“We launched a 5G pill two years in the past, however now, the refreshed model coming this yr is a serious improve. We’re planning to launch it throughout numerous value bands and configurations, as a result of we’ve seen that acceptance of 5G is rising pushed by individuals’s demand for seamless, always-on connectivity.”
However one space the place tablets have modified essentially the most, aside from getting greater screens, stylus assist all through the interface, and improved usability by keyboard and mouse assist, is the software program itself.
Lenovo tablets now include options like PC Mode, expanded multi-window assist, and Good Join, which permits entry to recordsdata throughout different Good Join-enabled gadgets. Productiveness options have been improved on tablets, with a transparent push towards providing close to desktop-level usability. Harjai stated the corporate works carefully with Google on the event of pill software program to make sure a seamless consumer expertise and optimised app efficiency on their gadgets.
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However Lenovo’s partnership with Google goes past shopper tablets. Google additionally collaborates with Lenovo in designing customised options for business customers, tailor-made to satisfy particular enterprise wants. Harjai notes that the business pill section is rising quickly in India, with tablets turning into the popular selection in sectors equivalent to retail, hospitality, and authorities, because of their utility and suppleness.
Within the first quarter of 2025, Lenovo held the third place within the Indian pill market with a 19 per cent market share, in line with Cybermedia analysis. Samsung led the section with 34 per cent adopted by Apple at 21 per cent.
Harjai stated Lenovo has expanded its manufacturing capabilities in India, with two services at present operational in Noida the place the corporate manufactures its tablets. At current, the main focus is on fulfilling home demand, which accounts for a good portion of the tablets consumed in India.
