Indian Tablet Market Falls 19.7% YoY in Q3 2025; Samsung Leads, Apple Drops to Fourth

The Indian tablet market experienced a substantial decline of 19.7% YoY in Q3 2025, a recent report by International Data Corporation (IDC) revealed. Samsung, despite the decline in demand across the board, remained the most powerful company, and Apple was left in the fourth position as far as shipments went.

Tablet Shipments and User Trends

During the third quarter of 2025, Indian makers of tablets were able to deliver a total of 1.33 million tablets, both slates and detachables included into the mix. There was an increase in detachable tablets of 7.3%, but it wasn't enough to offset the slate tablet decline of 29.4%, thus the overall market performance went down.

The consumer sector proved to be the most resilient, as it recorded a 13.5% increase YoY which was mainly attributed to festive season sales, new device lineups, bank cashback schemes, and attractive promotional offers. The rise of online sales was 53.9%, and e-commerce platforms became the main driver, especially in the case of smaller cities.

In contrast, the commercial sector was in dire straits, as tablet shipments fell by 53.5% year-on-year. The education sector had the largest decline of 61.9%, while small office purchases declined by 47.9%. IDC named the delays in tendering education-related services, tighter budgets in SMEs, and prolonged device replacement cycles as the primary causes of this decline.

The Leading Tablet Vendors

With a market share of 37.5%, Samsung was number one, trailed by Lenovo with 16.8% and Xiaomi with 15.5%, who took the second and third positions respectively. Apple and Acer dropped to fourth and fifth places, marking the fierce competition in the Indian tablet market. Lenovo and smaller brands were the ones on the rise as online and festive season demand were the main drivers of their growth.

Consumer Perspectives

Priyansh Tiwari, the IDC analyst, stated that the increase in online sales during the festive season has been a significant factor in the acceptance of tablets in the smaller cities. Tablets are becoming more and more a part of our lives as the world is getting digitalized. They are not only for entertainment but can also be used for productivity purposes, especially if combined with accessories like keyboards or styluses.

Though the market shows a downward trend, there are still some segments like detachable tablets, e-commerce sales, and consumer-focused campaigns whose growth can help the Indian tablet segment to recover shortly.