COVER STORY

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KEEPING A TAB ON TABLETS

DQ Channels takes a look at the channel strategies of Indias leading tablet vendors

ven as laptop and notebook sales are soaring high in the domestic market, tablets have come into the forefront poised to overtake the growth of the laptop segment in the next 2 years. Further, with mobility solutions on the rise in the enterprise segment, solution providers are considering tablets as a viable mobility option compared to BlackBerry and Push Mail services. As per CyberMedia Research ending June 2011, sales of tablets in the domestic market alone have touched 1.58 lakh units. As companies continue to boast about their latest technologies and product development in their quest to have a larger market share the price factor is poised to drive the growth for tablets. For retailers as well as distributors, tablet is poised as the device for convergence with most of them agreeing that the real fight is between the smartphone and the tablet. The decision for opting for mobility business with BlackBerry Enterprise Solutions as well as the Playbook helped Ingram Micro boost its revenues even as the share of telecom products in its portfolio decreased by 12% last financial year.

For Redington too, non-IT business contributed to about 18% of its pie, primarily on account of the contribution made by Apple and BlackBerry with the distributor taking a leap forward in helping its partners in setting up BlackBerry zones. Same is the case for most of the retail counters in the country. As an example, Eastern Logica Infoway, one of the largest retailers in the country has reportedly sold out nearly the entire stock during the festive season. So far, the response I have received for Samsung Galaxy tablets have been very convincing; people are opting to buy it not just because of the form and price factor, but I believe that it must be doing some value addition for the buyers; or else why would they buy it? echoed Gaurav Goel, MD, Eastern Logica Infoway. In this backdrop set amidst speculation over the success of the tablet and the optimistic market trend, DQ Channels takes a look at the channel strategies of the major vendors in the tablet space.
AVISHEK RAKSHIT, SANDHYA MALHOTRA

SONY CORP Tablet S & P

ony forayed into the Android tablet category in India with the launch of Sony Tablets S&P in 2011 with a promise to deliver the perfect combination of hardware, content and network with seamless usability for a high-quality, engaging entertainment experience. Sonys rapid response technologies efficiently load website information for faster browsing, with the swift and smooth technology. In India, Sony has collaborated with local content developers to design unique applications for the Indian consumers. Priced at `33,990 and `36,990 for the 3G + Wi-Fi version, Sony Tablet S & Tablet P is available across 500 stores in India starting Mid-January 2012. True to Sony`s design philosophy, Sony Tablet devices are optimally designed, and is differentiated from all other tablet devices with its uniquely asymmetric design that shifts the center of balance to one side. Sony Tablet S has a wedge-shape, similar to a magazine thats been folded over, that gives it a finely balanced feel, as well as a sense of lightness that makes it a true pleasure to hold and use for hours on end. On the other hand, the dual screen design of Sony Tablet P provides optimized entertainment experience and portability. One can watch video on one screen while using the other to control it, or check email while using the other screen as a keyboard. Like Samsung too, Sony has a non-competitive regional distribution structure in place with several RDs spanning across India. These RDs in turn bills directly to the resellers and the retailers both in IT as well telecom channel. However, unlike Samsung, Sony doesnt have a demarcation over IT and non-IT channel partners. Also, Sonys primary focus apart from its channel billing is over several Sony Worlds.

RESEARCH IN MOTION Blackberry Playbook

I M seems quite committed to the PlayBook platform and has claimed to be excited by the customers reaction to PlayBook OS 2.0. A report released by CyberMedia Research indicates 21% marketshare for BlackBerry PlayBook in India. As per the market standards, RIM has seen positive momentum with the promotional pricing levels and has decided to maintain an aggressive pricing strategy in order to help continue the momentum. The company is of the view that the factor of attractive pricing combined with the compelling features in PlayBook OS 2.0 and locally relevant applications make this offering extremely competitive. As its channel policy, RIM is routing its products with numerous tie-ups. Ranging from telecom service provider tie-ups inclusive of Vodafone, Airtel and numerous others, the company also took the route to distribute its products through Redington India taking a bold step to set up BlackBerry Exclusive outlets across India. However, the distribution pattern for India is governed by its product line. While RIM relied on its carrier network to sell their products and solutions for the enterprise segment, a consumer segment demanded renewed focus on the way BlackBerry products were distributed. It appointed Redington India as the national distributor thus significantly increasing our presence in India. Further to the success of retail distribution for GSM smartphones, RIM appointed Brightpoint India and Ingram Micro to manage its CDMA products and enterprise solutions distribution nationally. With a pan-India retail footprint RIM today has a retail presence in over 80 cities and has over 4,000 point of presence. It also introduced over 500 BlackBerry Experience Zones which are specialized stores wherein product experts offer consumers complete insight to BlackBerry range of smartphones, its features thus helping them to choose the right product and service plans that suits their communication needs. However, BlackBerry 10 has been the latest buzzword and this line of device is expected to be available in the latter half of 2012.

DQ CHANNELS

March 16-31, 2012

A CyberMedia Publication

COVER STORY
ASUS INDIA Eee Pad

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SUS recently launched its line of tablets being a recent entrant in the field. Although the entry was late, ASUS has been able to leverage its potential targeting the users to create a limitless potential for itself. As its strategy, it has rolled out tablets with technology and innovation at the forefront. From the build to the performance, it has focused on overall basis, so as to enable users to have a superior computing experience. In 2011, ASUS had a market share of 5% in the tablets market. This year it has set a target of 15% market share with the launch of some new variants targeting different segments. Recently ASUS launched Transformer Prime which is a high-end tablet. In order to focus on the high growth areas, it is aiming at having 11 branches in India with primary targeted markets being the tier-2 and tier-3 areas. To cater to that, ASUS is working on increasing the regional distributors and manpower to be able to reach each and every partner in each state. It is also aiming at adding 2 national distributors in 2012 to increase the presence in more channel partners. Furthermore, the company claimed to have been quite upbeat about escalating its presence in tier-2 and tier-3 cities with the ongoing retail expansion venture. The company has been working on strengthening its distribution channel and has recently appointed new partners. At this time, ASUS has 12 regional distributors and more than 300 AGP partners. However, the prime focus for ASUS is to carry on escalating regional level distributors to help us to ensure that our products reach tier-2 and tier-3 cities apart from the tier-1 cities. As a channel strategy, it conducts various channel meets and seminars.

APPLE iPad
hen it comes to tablets, Apple definitely stands on top with the vendor credited for ushering the era of tablets with its premium iPad. What came in as an electronic status symbol soon became a cult especially with the youngsters and soon other vendors following suit. The buzz for iPad came in from the very fact that like the iPhone, iPad allows all third party apps to run on the OS without modifications opening up the Apple apps market. Also, HTML5, the still-developing next generation of HTML, has been thoroughly embraced by the iPhones OS, and, by extension, the iPads. Also, the 3G support and Wi-Fi capabilities adds up to the positives of the tablet. On the other side, there has been rounds of complaints among the end-users about the performance impact and the simultaneous running of apps. Added to it, flash support is also an issue pointed out. Although Apple maintains a low profile, the vendor is known to have 3 national distributors in its loop across its numerous product lines. The distributors comprises of Ingram Micro, Redington India and Neoteric Infomatic which features as the authorized distributors. Apple is reported to be contributing a healthy double digit percentage to Ingram Micros top-line. These distributors in turn, bills to the channel network often direct billing to the retailers eliminating the scope of reselling. On the other hand, Apple maintains a good chain of Apple Exclusive Stores where billing is reportedly direct. Following the estimated global success of the iPad 2, Apple has brought into focus the new iPad 3 although the availability of the iPad 3 has been postponed by 3 days. iPad 3 is claimed to be four times faster than its predecessor and features retina display with 5 megapixel camera and 4G LTE capability. Above all, Apple has boasted about the screen sharpness and claimed about the picture resolution is so crisp that words will appear sharper than words in print.

CISCO Cius

etworking solution provider Cisco has joined the tablet bandwagon by launching Cius in India and is targeting the enterprises for the product. The tablet device, unlike other tablets, aims to provide productivity solutions like emails and business applications-on-the-go to executives. Cius is not just another tablet. It has got more to do with providing applications helping productivity in a secure environment. The device would be available at about `35,000 in India and with the docking station, the price would be about `50,000. The company will target its existing clients and users of its IP telephony services, the base of which is about 7,00,000 users in India. The seven-inch touchscreen tablet works on Intel Atom Processor and comes with 1GB RAM (expandable memory up to 32GB), dual cameras (front and back) and 3G/4G and Wi-Fi support. The device comes integrated with collaborative applications like web conferencing, Cisco Jabber Instant Messaging, telepresence, email and calendar, which can help colleagues stay in touch with each other. Its only competitor in the segment, at present, may be Avayas Flare, which is a 11.6-inch tablet. However on the partners front it seems that all is not going well with Ciscos strategy to tap the Indian market with its enterprise tablet. The company had launched Cius Android tablet targeting the enterprise segment in India in September last year but it seems that the product has failed to create buzz in the market. Right now, Cius is at the pilot stage wherein Cisco is handing out 10-15 units to its customers for them to see how it is working in their environment. Ciscos collaboration partners are taking Cius to market by either seeding or pushing it with other collaborative devices. The reason being that they have not seen major or rather any demand from the customers yet. For them, its more like pushing it and asking the customers to try the product. Although the company has been able to sell below 500 units in India till date, its expectations are to sell at least 5,000 units in the first year. It also expects that the real conversion of sales will start picking up in the AMJ quarter this year. And going forward, Cisco expects to sell 10,000 to 20,000 units year-on-year.

DQ CHANNELS

March 16-31, 2012

A CyberMedia Publication