New Delhi: Tablet shipments in India grew 7.8 percent in the third quarter of 2016 owing to the preparation for the festive season, a report said on Thursday.


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Datawind continues to lead the tablet market with 26.1 percent share with its volume growing 73 percent over the same period last year, said the report by International Data Corporation (IDC).


Samsung is at second position with 26.2 percent growth, followed by iBall with its shipments growing marginally by 2.9 percent sequentially in third quarter of 2016.


Though iBall`s shipments showed a decline of 7.5 percent year-on-year, it leads the 4G shipments of tablets amongst the Indian vendors.


"Lenovo stood at fourth place with 15.5 percent sequential growth and Micromax retained its place in top five, although its shipments remained flattish over previous quarter and 39 per cent year-on-year drop," IDC said in a statement.


Micromax`s shift in focus from Detachable to entry level clamshell notebook category has resulted in negligible presence in detachable category in recent quarters, noted IDC.


The total tablet shipments -- including slate and detachables -- clocked 1.06 million in the third quarter, remaining stagnant over the same period last year, said International Data Corporation (IDC).


"Commercial segment continues to grow at a healthy pace accounting to over one-fifth of total tablet shipments in third quarter of 2016 with key contributors being education, government and large enterprise segments," said Karthik J., Senior Market Analyst (Client Devices), IDC India.


Commercial segment also contributed to majority of detachable shipments in the third quarter, driving the product category`s volume to almost double over previous quarter.


IDC predicts that tablet shipments will drop sequentially in the fourth quarter of the current year coming off from third quarter spike for festive season.


"As a result, 2016 total tablet shipments is likely to decline marginally over 2015. Detachables are expected to continue with healthy shipments in the last quarter of this year to account for little over five percent of total tablet shipments in 2016 as compared to 2.7 percent last year," said Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India.