Abstract This Assignment is on understanding the marketing environment of Tablet PC and critically analyzing it including both micro and

macro environment. The Objective of the Study: 1. To know about the future prospect of Tablet PC 2. To know about the performance of the product in the market

Introduction
A tablet PC is a wireless, portable personal computer with a touch screen interface. The tablet form factor is typically smaller than a notebook computer but larger than a smart phone. (http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/tablet-PC) The idea of tablet computing is generally credited to Alan Kay of Xerox, who sketched out the idea in 1971. The first widely-sold tablet computer was Apple Computer's Newton, which was not a commercial success. Technological advances in battery life, display resolution, handwriting recognition software, larger memory, and wireless Internet access have since made tablets a viable computing option. There are Several competing brands operating in the market with Tablet which are as follows: Samsung Galaxy Tab Apple Acer Motorola Dell Asus HTC Blackberry Olive IBall Reliance Tab HCL Me Tab Wespro Digital

As per a recent survey conducted by Cyber Media Research (CMR) (based on data from November 2010-March 2011), 85000 tablets were sold in India, Though olive is the first brand who introduced tablet in the Indian market but Samsung leads the tablet race in India with whopping 84.7% market share as opposed to Apple which holds only 5.9%. Brands Samsung Olive Apple Others Market Share (in %) 84.7 8.2 5.9 2.4

A survey was conducted by me to know about peoples interest & knowledge on tablets where 20 people were asked the following questions

1. Which brand would you prefer to buy? Ans: 10 preferred Reliance tab, 2 preferred Samsung Galaxy, 7 preferred wespro, 1 preferred Apple. 2. What would you do with a tablet? Ans: 1. To access internet 10 2. To listen music 2 3. To play game 8 4. Style Statement 0 3. What Improvement or change do you need in tablet? Ans: 1. Should be made cheaper 8, 2. Should provide better battery backup 2, 3. Should be made more easier to carry 3. 4. Should provide more storage capacity 5. 4. Which is the cheaper yet best tablet? Ans: 12 Reliance Tab, 5 Wespro, 3 Olive.

5. Do you think that tablet will replace laptops? Ans: 8 Yes, Laptops can be replaced by Tablets. 12 No, Tablets can never take laptops place. 6. Which brand would provide better performance? Ans: Samsung 15, Apple 5. 7. Which would you prefer to buy, mobile or tablet? Ans: Mobile 18, Tablet 2. 8. Which is more user friendly, mobile or tablet? Ans: Mobile 20, Tablet 0. 9. What would you prefer to buy, mobile, laptop or tablet? Ans: 12 Tablet, 6 Mobile, 2 Laptop. 10. Will Tablet be able to survive in the market? Ans: Yes 20, No 0. To know about performance of tablet in the market, following questions were asked to a retailer. 1. Do you keep tablets? 2. Why do u keep tablets inspite of having other communication options? 3. What kind of people are buying or showing interest on tablets? 4. People of which income group opts for tablets? 5. Have you received any feedback from users? 6. Do you feel that tablets would replace or outdo other communication products in the near future?

Limitation of the study: 1. The study was conducted on those people who does not have much knowledge of the product. 2. The study was conducted only on 20 people, thus datas collected are limited to them.

3. These datas are available from all possible products of communication, hence, they are not free from bias. There are different environmental factors which affect the marketing activities of the organizations. And it is very important to analyze these factors as the success of any business depends upon these factors. They include demographic, nature, economic, technology, culture & politics Marketing environment can be divided into two categories, they are: Micro Environment : These environment can be further divided into internal and external environment. Internal Environment : This Environment consists of the strategies that firm makes and the objective of the firm, organisations structure. It helps in framing various marketing strategies which decides the success of a product or the firm as a whole.

External Environment: It comprises of various parties outside the firm which affects the various activities of the firm, example: marketing intermediaries, suppliers, competitors, customers, shareholders and the society as a whole. It largely affects the marketing strategies of a firm as any firm has to deal with its external environment for the success of its strategies.

Macro Environment : It Further can be divided into various heads. They may discussed as follows: Demographic : It refers to the age, population, marital status, life style, literacy and various characteristics of the population. This environment has a greater impact on the various strategies framed by the company. Economic: The Economic environment is important to marketers as it determines the purchasing power of the people. Thus, marketers of

inexpensive good will look for those country or area where economic condition is either average or poor and vice versa.

Nature: This is another important environment as it decides the availability of raw material and thereby the cost of production. It also decides the availability of human resources and various other factors like energy, transportation & communication facility, etc.

Technology : This is one of the important environment which decides the cost of production and also the quality of the product or service. Marketers should always look for technological advancement taking place in the environment to enjoy the cost benefit and also to make the work easier and quicker.

Politics: The marketers work are influenced by regulatory environment. It decides the effective and efficient working of a firm. If the political environment is not stable, the performance of the firm will also be impacted.

Culture: Cultural environment determines the taste, behavior, belief, way of living, which arises out of a common race, religion, etc. Thus, manufacturer shall have to keep in consideration cultural environment before producing a product.

The factors which are also responsible for the success or failure of a product: 1. Quality: The quality is an important factor which influences buyer to buy a certain product. If the quality of a product doesnot stand up to

the expectation of the customers than the demand for that product is likely to go down. 2. Price : India is a price sensitive country. Thus, price for a product decides the demand for a product. In other words, higher priced product will likely to have lesser demand than those of lower priced product provided quality is not compromised. 3. Customer satisfaction: customer satisfaction is an important factor which is responsible for the success or failure of a product. Manufacturers or organizations should look for greater customer satisfaction to make their product successful in the market. 4. Promotion: Organizations should take up promotional activity to make the people aware of the product. Promotion is an important tool for making a product known to the people and which helps in making it successful.

Studies undertaken to understand the environment of tablet to relate the above description. Micro Environment: There are number of competitors in the market of tablet which is mentioned above. There are about 50 tablet models and a new model is getting launched in every week. It was expected to sale 2,50,000 units during this year. Before, the demand for tablets were seen only among the higher classes of people because of its higher price but with the increase in competition, the manufacturers has started decreasing their profit margin and providing them at a considerable lower price and thus making it affordable for common people. Recently, Lakshmi Access Communication System(LACS) has launched tablet of $99 for the lower income group. But it is still to be seen that whether people would take the lower priced tablets as most of the people would buy it for the first time and would think of using it for a considerable time thus, they are more likely to go for known brands with moderate price.

Macro Environment: Demographic Environment: On my survey, it was found that the tablets are used more by the business executives and students. They are found to be used by the people aged between 20 to 30 years. Now a days, people are getting more inclined towards new gadgets, thus a considerable increase in demand for tablets has been seen.

Economic environment: Before, tablets were only meant for higher income groups due to its higher price but now with the increasing competition, a sharp fall has been seen in price of the tablets thus making it available for middle and also lower income groups.

Technological Environment: People are finding it more sensible to opt for tablet than PC and laptops. Manufacturers are now providing wide variety of tablets. There are almost 50 models available in India with different configurations and they are priced according to their configuration. Manufacturers are trying to add more advanced features like USB, better battery back up, etc.

Based on the above study, future prospect of tablet seems to be very strong. People are getting more interested towards technologies and gadgets. Tablets which were only meant for higher classes of people but now it can be availed or enjoyed by both middle and lower classes of people. Tablet is one of such gadget which has the potential to replace PCs and laptops because of its unique advantages and features and one of such advantage is its portability. PCs and laptops are comparatively less portable and are costlier in comparison to tablets, though it will take some time for the people to accept it completely but the day is not so far when tablets will be ruling the market. The manufacturers are trying their best to

come up with more advanced features and variety and most importantly at a lesser price.

Tablet because of its uniqueness and is fit for a go ahead. But the manufacturers should try to reduce its price by decreasing their profit margin and should provide with more variety for the customer to choose from. Though there are certain lower priced tablets for lower income groups but still people are looking for known brands which comes at a moderate price and which has considerable good configuration. It is also necessary for the manufacturer to add some more advanced features and advantages to rule in the market in the future. For the tablet to become common mans device not only the price has to be reduced but also the data usage charges are also to be reduced to a considerable extent. Tablets otherwise has all the future to be a future gadget in the coming decades.