Apple has set off a new race in the mobile industry. It started with the iPhone in 2007 and then followed it up with the iPad in 2010. With the iPhone, Apple changed the way everyone makes and uses a smartphone. The iPad killed the netbook market and made a dent in laptops share. In India, Apple only entered with the iPhone in 2008 when the 2nd Gen 3G launched, as for the iPad, it came in 2011 (almost a year after its initial launch) and was still pretty popular. The iPad 3 and the new iPad (3rd generation) launched soon after the international launch and while competition has been shipping 10-inch rivals, the iPad pretty much rules the market share even in India.
Samsung had its Tab P750 10.1″ and Motorola launched the Xoom tablet with a lot of fanfare, however both of them failed to get much traction in India. Reason? Of course missing apps and a half baked OS can be blamed. But there is another reason. A more instinctive one. The price.
Apple has been successful in launching the iPad at a price point of below Rs 30,000 in India. Samsung and Motorola (in fact even HTC with a 7″ Flyer) considered their tablets worth Rs 35,000 approx. You certainly cant sell a inferior product a higher cost? Can you? The prices dropped steeply and that got some boost for Samsung and Motorola, but certainly not enough to earn respect and get a lot of word of mouth for itself. There are a number of people who sold their Android tablets to grab the latest iPad and the price for once was in Apple’s favor.