Apple iPad was introduced in USA in March 2010 and that moment in history can be acknowledged as the precise point when the ‘Tablet-Boom’ came to USA. Tablets were suddenly popular and people were lining to buy them at stores.
Pakistan has not seen such a drastic change in its smartphone-cum-tablet market but many can see that a gradual change is underway even in the local Pakistani market and tablets are gaining popularity.
We can remember the last regime during whose time the mobile phone industry in Pakistan boomed to acquire a wide subscriber base in a very short span and now the same is predicted to happen and has even started to happen to some extent for the local tablet industry.
I remember that only a year or a year and a half from now; tablets were almost nonexistent in Pakistan. Shops and mobile plazas in particular did not sell tablets at all. However, the condition is totally different now. Most of the large ‘Mobile Plazas’ in all major cities are now selling tablets.
As I am a resident of Rawalpindi, I go to the famous ‘Singapore Plaza’ to buy mobiles or get price updates. I can vividly remember that there were no tablets except for in one or two shops and even in those; the only tablet available was the Apple iPad or iPad 2. However, now 85% of the shops in the plaza sell tablets. The most commonly available tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 which is available in almost all shops for around Rs. 30,000. Dell Streak, ZTE V9, and Apple’s iPad are also available.
One of the major reasons of introduction of tablets is the reduced cost at which they are now available. Most users who liked to buy high end HTC phones are now going for tablets as they lie in the same price range and offer a variety of better features. Another reason is the need of consumers to have a device which is more powerful than an average smartphone and more portable than even a mini laptop.
Even many local Telecom Giants have seen the boom coming and are trying to make the maximum by offering many tablets at discount prices. PTCL, Wi-Tribe, Mobilink, and Ufone are already into the tablet business and have launched different tablets in Pakistan.
The tablet market is indeed growing in Pakistan. I can assure you, that pessimistically thinking, two years from now; most of you will have bought a tablet!
