Average prices of
tablets have crashed by 23 percent in the last four months in Southeast Asia,
according to GfK Asia’s retail tracking.
The average price of a
tablet was around $600 in
April. It is down by 23 percent when compared to January’s average pricing
across the region. The most expensive tablets were found in Indonesia, whereas
those being sold in the Philippines reflected the lowest average selling price
in April.
In recent months, the
industry has seen the addition of more features on new tablet models such as
double camera which is fast becoming the default feature, as well as USB
drives. However, despite all these enhancements, average prices are on a
declining trend, making tablets increasingly affordable to consumers.
The launch of the tablet
last year has taken the world by storm causing much excitement in the computing
industry among both consumers and manufacturers alike.
Shortly after the first
of its kind-the IPad officially entered the market, consumers were snapping
them up while manufacturers were coming up with new models with increasing
number of new and advanced features. According to market research company GfK
Asia, some 261,000 tablets spanning almost ten brands were sold across seven
Southeast Asian markets from January to April this year.
Tablets operating on the
Android operating system (OS) has been rising in prevalence and is today the
most popular platform embraced by users. In April, almost half of all tablets
(46percent) purchased by consumers was an Android compared to five months
before, in November, where the proportion was only slightly just over one out
of ten (13percent).
“GfK’s retail audit
across the seven Southeast Asian markets showed that similar to smartphone
trends, Android OS has also been gaining traction in the tablets arena since
the last quarter of 2010. More manufacturers are banking on the current Android
craze and choosing this platform for their tablets, resulting in consumers being
availed more options of Android tablets to choose from,” said Gerard Tan,
regional account director for IT, GfK Asia.
The combination of
today’s well wired society plus consumers’ demand for high speed and constant
web-connectivity have made 3G and 4G tablets popular choices as compared to the
non 3G/4G counterparts even with their costlier pricing. 3G and 4G enabled
tablet sales contribute to nearly four-fifths (79 percent) of overall sales
units across the seven countries.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
