Australia’s tablet market fell sharply in the first half of the year while sales rebounded in India in Q2 after a couple of quarters of anaemic growth.

Tablet sales dropped 28 per cent in Australia to 1.8 million units in H1, according to Telsyte.

With the market maturing – penetration of media tablets increased to 46 per cent – and the upgrade cycle slowing, the analyst firm forecasts 2.1 million units to be sold in H2. The slowdown comes after three years of strong growth.

The market is split almost evenly between Android (47 per cent) and Apple (46 per cent), while Windows-based devices take up the remaining 7 per cent. The iPad, launched in 2011, is still the most popular tablet on the market.

Meanwhile, in India the tablet market expanded 9 per cent from the previous quarter to 860,000 units.

IDC recently reduced it worldwide growth forecast for the full year to 6.5 per cent from 12 per cent.

Tablets with smaller screens (7-8 inches) accounted for 88 per cent of the Indian market, IDC said. Almost 90 per cent of the devices are Android based. Sub-$200 tablets with built-in voice made up the majority of shipments.

The popularity of smaller devices with voice capability is a trend across emerging markets in Asia, with more consumers looking for a more compact, single device for making calls, texting, emailing and watching videos.

A quarter of Q2 tablet shipments in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) could make cellular calls – that’s up from 15 per cent a year ago.

In Malaysia 81 per cent of tablets sold in the first half of the year had 7- to 8.9-inch screens compared with 59 per cent during the same period last year, according to GfK. The 10-inch screen category now accounts for just 10 per cent of sales, down from 29 per cent in H1 2013.