“For those who have a look at a pill, the primary benefit is that it’s a contact system. Most PCs in that value vary, clearly, are usually not touch-enabled. That being mentioned, the variety of methods you may work together with a pill immediately has elevated considerably,” explains Pankaj Harjai, Director, Tablets & Sensible Units, Lenovo India, as he highlights why shopper sentiment towards tablets has been shifting.
“For those who have a look at a Lenovo system, all of the tablets we have now 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 means into the mainstream shopper market. Nonetheless, they have been primarily used as consumption gadgets: non-essential, however good to have. They provided an reasonably priced approach to watch motion pictures, browse the net, and entry purposes, so long as customers didn’t thoughts their limitations. This pattern continued for years till the COVID-19 pandemic hit. All of the sudden, tablets have been again within the dialog, with a surge in gross sales pushed by the necessity to attend on-line lessons from house.
Pankaj Harjai, Director, Tablets & Sensible Units, Lenovo India. (Picture: Lenovo)
Put up-COVID, nevertheless, tablets have advanced considerably. They’re now highly effective sufficient to deal with video modifying 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 quite a lot of equipment, tablets are opening up new markets and reaching a broader base of shoppers.
“The pill is now not only a system primarily used for schooling or attending lessons, because it was earlier. Sure, leisure has turn into a significant use case, however so has productiveness. It’s more and more changing into a secondary productiveness system for a lot of customers. Folks have began accepting tablets rather more than earlier than, even for his or her company work or each day duties like searching and emailing all backed by the highly effective enhancements in pill know-how,” Harjai informed indianexpress.com in an interview.
Three years in the past, Harjai recollects, Lenovo carried out a shopper survey throughout 15 markets to grasp what sort of tablets shoppers have been on the lookout for. Based mostly on the insights, the corporate recognized three main use instances: 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 increase. Folks have been at house, watching extra OTT content material, and consumption went up considerably. One of many insights we gained was that customers wished tablets with greater screens and higher shows. In addition they wished higher battery life as a result of in case you are watching two or three motion pictures back-to-back, you don’t wish to fear about charging. On high of that, they have been on the lookout for a greater expertise with the pen. So, leisure clearly grew to become an important use case.
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The second large space was productiveness. For professionals such as you and me, carrying a laptop computer in all places isn’t at all times sensible. With distant work changing into the norm, individuals wanted extra flexibility. That’s the place our newer kind elements got here in tablets that might additionally assist productiveness wants. And the third main use case that emerged was gaming,” he mentioned.
Like smartphones and different shopper product classes, tablets are additionally experiencing an analogous market pattern: premiumisation. Whereas tablets have but to totally exchange 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. At this time, the Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 phase has nearly doubled in simply two years, largely pushed by the truth that individuals now need higher gadgets and are prepared to pay for them. If we provide a greater system and a greater expertise, shoppers are able to spend extra,” he mentioned. The truth is, greater than 25 per cent of pill gross sales now come from the premium phase, in comparison with entry-level fashions, with shoppers aged 18 to 35 driving this demand.
“Will we constantly run EMI schemes all year long? Perhaps not as extensively as within the cellular class. The refresh fee for tablets isn’t as quick. Folks have a tendency to vary their cellphones each six months to a 12 months, on common. However with tablets, we have now seen that they’re sometimes used for round two years. The affordability issue or frequent upgrading isn’t as vital. That mentioned, we do supply EMI and affordability packages throughout festive seasons or main occasions, and so they positively 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 provides tablets within the vary of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000.
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As was hoped by market pundits two to a few years in the past, 5G remains to be not a significant component driving pill gross sales but, admits Harjai. “What we have now seen is that post-COVID, many individuals have robust Wi-Fi connectivity at house and on the workplace. Consequently, the demand for Wi-Fi-only tablets has gone up considerably over the previous two to a few years. However I do assume 5G will finally change that,” he mentioned.
Lenovo Yoga Tab Professional. (Picture: Lenovo)
“We launched a 5G pill two years in the past, however now, the refreshed model coming this 12 months is a significant 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 means of keyboard and mouse assist, is the software program itself.
Lenovo tablets now include options like PC Mode, expanded multi-window assist, and Sensible Join, which permits entry to recordsdata throughout different Sensible Join-enabled gadgets. Productiveness options have been improved on tablets, with a transparent push towards providing close to desktop-level usability. Harjai mentioned 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 industrial customers, tailor-made to fulfill particular enterprise wants. Harjai notes that the industrial pill phase is rising quickly in India, with tablets changing into the popular selection in sectors equivalent to retail, hospitality, and authorities, due to their utility and adaptability.
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 phase with 34 per cent adopted by Apple at 21 per cent.
Harjai mentioned Lenovo has expanded its manufacturing capabilities in India, with two amenities 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.